Re:Who profits most from America's baffling health-care system?
by simonw on Sunday October 22, 2023 @01:21PM
(#37977257)
Yeah, the key point the article is making is this:
> Over the past decade these firms have quietly increased their presence in America’s vast health-care industry (see chart ). They do not make drugs and have not, until recently, treated patients. They are the intermediaries—insurers, chemists, drug distributors and pharmacy-benefit managers (PBMs)—sitting between patients and their treatments. In 2022 the combined revenue of the nine biggest middlemen—call them big health—equated to nearly 45% of America’s health-care bill, up from 25% in 2013.
Their answer to the question "who profits most?" is this category of company. That's still compatible with the fact that the manufacturers of the pharmaceuticals have extremely high profit margins.
> Over the past decade these firms have quietly increased their presence in America’s vast health-care industry (see chart ). They do not make drugs and have not, until recently, treated patients. They are the intermediaries—insurers, chemists, drug distributors and pharmacy-benefit managers (PBMs)—sitting between patients and their treatments. In 2022 the combined revenue of the nine biggest middlemen—call them big health—equated to nearly 45% of America’s health-care bill, up from 25% in 2013.
Their answer to the question "who profits most?" is this category of company. That's still compatible with the fact that the manufacturers of the pharmaceuticals have extremely high profit margins.