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A comment on The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the Books. Parent comment

Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by disordinary on Sunday May 13, 2018 @11:07PM (#17062386)
That's not true. If the US had a centralised health system like other developed countries they would have the same bargaining power. In NZ we have Pharmac who bulk purchases drugs for the country, they can get good deals because they operate in a free market and can play the pharma companies off each other.

Don't blame other countries for your own governments inability to bargain.

Pharma companies still have patents and exclusivity deals. They will price the drug at a point where it's profitable, and countries will buy those drugs if they work.

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Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by refurb on Monday May 14, 2018 @12:03AM (#17062597)
it's not about negotiation at all. NZ has a population of 5M. The largest private health insurer in the US, United Health, cover 40M people. They can, and do, negotiate drug prices.

Who do you think would get a better deal?

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Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by p1necone on Monday May 14, 2018 @12:44AM (#17062762)
We don't need to speculate on who gets a better deal, we can already see that people in NZ pay far, far (like an order of magnitude) less for drugs.
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Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by disordinary on Monday May 14, 2018 @12:15AM (#17062633)
Is it the health insurer that negotiates though or the individual private health care providers and pharmacy chains (drug stores)?
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Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by refurb on Monday May 14, 2018 @12:21AM (#17062652)
It's the insurer who negotiates with the drug companies directly.

And they do negotiate hard! United healthcare has over 100 products on it's exclusion list which means they told the drug company "no, we won't pay for your drug."

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Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by disordinary on Monday May 14, 2018 @12:33AM (#17062715)
Then it must be about added regulations that the US has.
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