The Price of Remission - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43925396 - May 2025 (93 comments)

This was a good read, thanks for sharing.

I feel like the best way to fight this, if I was the government, would be to stop enforcing laws preventing patients and even doctors or hospitals from importing the overpriced pharmaceuticals from overseas generics manufacturers. Like the article points out, each pill costs no more than $0.25 to make. The goal wouldn't necessarily be to get everyone using overseas suppliers but to put downward pressure on the price gougers in the country.

It's too late for this. Many government regulations and policies can be solved with money and this would be one of those squashable problems.

Maybe if Pharma companies didn't get so rich already, this could've been possible.

Happy to help. The laws you refer to exist to juice pharma industry profits. Same reason it has been so hard to change the law to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. The price gouging is by design for line go up.

Changing the law will take time (election cycles). If you cannot leave the US for a developed country that won't squeeze to extract from you while you're trying to meet your healthcare needs, importing your drugs that can be imported without US approval is your only path in the short term, or potentially traveling to obtain them and bring them back (roughly two-thirds of the entire U.S. population, ~200M people, live within 100 miles of a U.S. land or coastal border).

(not legal advice, i am just an internet rando)

Thank you, really liked this one.

This was so hurtful and blood boiling to read. How is stuff like this allowed to happen?

lack of disincentives to do this

The system is broken. Hence Luigi.

I tried health-tech twice. Opted out both times as there are too many misaligned incentives and useless rent-takers supported by Congress and other entrenched players.

At this point maybe the best solution is door to door doctors using AI.