Posted on 08/25/2016 11:02:40 PM PDT by Rummyfan
A couple of years ago, I got my front teeth knocked out by a combination of bad decisions and gravity. I had never so much as seen the inside of a dentist’s office, so I didn’t really know what to expect. The reality was amazing: I went to a tiny little office a few blocks down from National Review’s palatial penthouse at Buckley Towers, where a lovely young Indian immigrant gazed into my mug and compared some enamels samples like a painter trying to decide whether your living room is actually “Westhighland white” or more of a “Restoration ivory,” and then whipped up some new teeth, first a temporary set and then, a week or so later, permanent replacements. Cost a few hundred bucks.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
It’s amateurs like you who save lives.
Many years ago I was an EMT working duty at a family amusement park. We were not allowed to dispense medication of any kind for any reason. Some frantic people brought a 5 yr.old boy to us for treatment of allergy due to a bee sting. Within seconds of the sting, you could literally hear that child’s lungs filling with fluid.
The child was at the park with neighbor-friends, not parents. However, his care takers had an epi pen for him so we quickly grabbed the lady and drug her into the ambulance...almost literally as she was scared and reluctant. We had HER administer the med, and the child ended up needing both doses. We transported him to the hospital where the 5yr. Old was thrown onto a gurney, shoved into a room unexamined and left unattended so they could grill US about who administered the Eul epipen. They wanted to bring US up on charges of practicing medicine without a licence! They were determined that we had administered the med.
My husband had the oldstyle sting kit which was a syringe containing 2 doses of epinephrine. It was a divided dose so you had to turn the plunger after giving the first dose, so that the plunger would line up in the grooves in order to unlock the second dose. It took a bit of practice to figure this out and when seconds count, having to stop and read directions doesn’t cut it. Furthermore, it can be very scary sticking a needle into someone for the first time. The epi pen type gadget is quick and non intimidating, especially to someone in mortal fear of their life, and afraid of needles, too.
The $600 pricetag is non-justifiable and capitalizes unmercifully on fear. I am all for capitalism and making a reasonable profit, but in my opinion, being in business comes with a level of responsibility.
It is unreasonable to compare a life with cable TV. Things like TV are paid out a little at a time while the life saving medical device demands full payment up front. You may only need it once every ten years, but you have to keep it fresh and updated. If you are the average worker, you earn just a tad bit over what it takes to get some assistance with devices and medicines. All it takes to be turned away from qualifying help is a lousy dollar per year!
If you have to shell out of pocket for a lot of medical stuff, it can be impossible. I’ve been there. You can be forced to choose between an epi pen or 2 months worth of groceries. And if your kid needs a pair of shoes, school supplies, other medicines and doctor bills, it’s going to have to come from the grocery budget because that’s the most variable expense in the budget for many families...who also don’t qualify for food assistance eirher, much less cable TV.
The joker who wrote the article doesn’t have a clue as to how nearly impossible life is for those on the line between poverty and survival. These are the ones who bear the full brunt of the misery. They are in the millions now. They used to be few and far between.
If the prescribed units cost $57 in 2007, does anyone believe inflation, taxes, or costs of manufacture pushed the price to $600 in less than 10 years???
You do recall that Obamacare taxed medical devices? Outrageous price gouging or reaction to our new federal overlords and the new Obamacare tax?
It's hard to take the writer seriously when he starts out like this. Who makes it to adulthood without going to the dentist?
Think of what huge money can do. It’s call pay to play! The huge corporations of today basically buy out competition and then set prices. Sorry if you don’t agree. But Hayak would.
And the bottom line is... why such a HUGE rise in cost for Epipen? because they can.
The ObamaCare Medical Device excise tax of 2.3%???
2.3%........doesn’t sound like they hiked that tax yet, they will get to it, I am sure.
Speaking of ObamaCare...my wife was just informed that her insurance company will NO LONGER cover the costs of her insulin. The pharmacy wants $375. LOL...that’s not happening.
Do you believe in supply and demand, or do you not? If the market cannot bear the cost of the pens, they will not sell. If they don't sell, the price will come down. Or, there will be ample incentive for another company to move in with a more competitive product.
The problem is that the government is enabling a monopoly, they are supposed to fight against monopolies.
They will sell because the government has passed a law saying that certain places, like schools must buy them.
So enjoy when your taxes go up to pay for these items.
Or, there will be ample incentive for another company to move in with a more competitive product.
There was a company that made a more competitive product. Oddly they were alleged to have produced a product that was not up to code. This allegation, (not proven mind you) was enough to force a recall and they quit making the product leaving this company as the only major supplier.
So you have a forced market (by government), an elimination of competition (by government) and the price (from a company with extensive government connections) suddenly skyrockets and you don't find this even the slightest bit odd?
This is in no way resembles a "free market" and yet you have alleged "conservatives" lining up to throw themselves on this grenade.
How... interesting.
“If the market cannot bear the cost of the pens, they will not sell”
When your child’s life depends upon it, you will spend whatever it takes, including going into debt.
“Do you believe in supply and demand, or do you not?”
Do you jest? Of course I do. That doesn’t make it right! Nor do the laws of supply and demand figure into this rise in cost. Simply because they COULD, Mylan did. When the pill that cost 14.95 was raised to over $900, was that supply and demand; or GREED?
Let’s agree to disagree.
For the record, I’m with you on this one.
But I find it amusing that the original bent here on FR was high anger at Mylan for raising the price, mainly because the CEO’s father is a Democrat. But now that it looks like government might actually do something about predatory pricing, they’re back on the free market bandwagon.
There can be no real “free market” where government-granted or coercive monopolies are present. Our illustrious politicians kowtow to huge corporate concerns in many ways as to truly stifle competition. When we say that discriminatory government taxes, subsidies, tariffs, and other regulations are not good for the “free markets” we are correct in saying so. But so is interference that benefits the few in ways that cripple competition or worse, that won’t even allow for upstart enterprises. Twenty year patents and then the sale of the same is killing the free market. The guy who bought that 14.95 pill should never have been able to buy that patent because the patent itself is a regulatory benefit to private behavior which kills competition and diminishes laissez-faire.
Yes, there has to be a balance with regulations because without it, greed, on the one side, or tyrannical control on the other; destroys free market principles.
The epipen costs what it does because the government decided long ago that you were too stupid to use a simple pre-loaded syringe and that through their approval process and abuse of the patent system the maker of an autoinjector would be able to charge astronomical prices for a commodity medication.
Call me a commie if you want but abuses like this really burn me up. If the sale of a small kit with a preloaded syringe and whatever goes along with it were allowed by the imperial federal government the price would be back down to $15-$20 immediately.
In the 1960’s, we had to stick it in and roll up a tube a little. Every one in my class except bn med officer did it. Was around 16 or so in that class.
Wouldn’t the introduction of a product that works by the same or even a different mechanism challenge the existing pen?
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Not when basic aspects of the device that should not be patentable are allowed to be... Imagine if GM patented round wheels and you had to come up with an alternative. A spring loaded syringe isn’t rocket science but getting one approved is (if you’re not connected).
No problem...let us know if your Dr. knows about it, and if it is readily available at your pharmacy. Also, how it compares to Epipen instruction-wise (caps, injection-end, etc.). Maybe we can force the price of Epipen down if everyone likes & switches to Adrenaclick! ;-)
P.S: You might want to print out and take the “prescribing info.” with you to the Dr...in case he hasn’t used/seen Adrenaclick before: http://adrenaclick.com/pdf/Prescribing-Information.pdf
You are correct, ours was a “dry” heat.
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