Re:Cost of developing new drugs may be far lower than indust...
by s1artibartfast on Saturday April 27, 2024 @10:01AM
(#40180015)
To be clear, I'm not a defender of the US system. I vehemently hate it. Im just explaining why costs are so high.
It is high because of the system structure and the fact that most people are willing to tolerate.
I'm pushing back on the moronic idea that prices are high because drug companies are too “greedy“ in the US, but the same exact company is mysteriously less greedy in the EU or AUS. The difference is that insurance in those places negotiate a lower price, so they get one!
Insurance companies in the US operate on a cost plus basis, so they want prices as high as possible.
Medical bankruptcies do happen in the US, at a rate of about 1 per 1,000 people per year.
My only point of reference is ~4 decades of usenet and web forums routinely having mention of people (in the USofA) being bankrupted by medical incidents (heart attacks, car accidents, sporting injuries, non elective surgeries, etc) that here and in the UK are relatively mundane affairs.
I struggle to fathom a country where there is a need to "renew" health coverage .. here we have 'adequate' and 'private' and essentially everybody has adequate as a fallback with no need to tie basic health coverage to an employment package that is lost when someone fires|quits.
Each to their own, here the ideals of good health and sufficient basic wage have been tied in to social contract since Federation.