Non-catastrophic healthcare insurance eliminates the supply and demand dynamic for most medical services.
And we’re surprised there’s price gouging?
This is a subject I know little about but have a fair supply of comments, and the only comment I would make NOW is ... I pray this kind of correction is in Trump’s bag when he says he’ll do away with obamacare and replace it with something based on the free market
I heard of over the counter Insulin in other countries.
Time for TRUMP to negoitiate a better deal!
NOT time to nationalize our pharmacy.
Trump addressed this very thing in a couple of his rallies...
Europe, Canada and all the other single payers have price controls.
The US is subsidizing all the single payer countries.
We could go to price controls too but all the drug research would dry up. No new drug discoveries.
Price controls in the socialist single payer countries is the problem. Their prices do not cover research.
It is not expensive to manufacture a pill. The research is the real cost.
I buy Novelin N (Humulin N) for $28 per bottle. Course I buy it at the animal feed store.
Price fixing is an agreement (written, verbal, or inferred from conduct) among competitors that raises, lowers, or stabilizes prices or competitive terms. Generally, the antitrust laws require that each company establish prices and other terms on its own, without agreeing with a competitor.
Looks like Karl has an incorrect definition of price-fixing.
My parents never “vacationed in Europe”. My parents died in 1971 and 2010. I never “vacationed in Europe” either. The time when I was there I was serving in the military. I had the pleasure of waiting until the anniversary of my birthday to schedule dental appointments for my wife.
40 years later, I am struggling to understand all the requirements and complications and cost impacts of ObamaCare and their bronze, silver and bronze bullshit.
The last people on my mind right now is “Big Pharma.”
France did not have to pay for development costs or the very expensive FDA testing.
So Europe is likely getting a free ride on American development and research.
Lots of different types of insulin and insulin drugs, all made for various different conditions:
http://www.goodrx.com/insulins
Drugs are a total racket.
Any factoring of the difference in legal liability between countries?
I have never seen one of these stories to be fair or comprehensive. They always use an instance of “unfairness” without ever pointing out the root causes of that unfairness, which are usually (though not always) found in government interference of some kind.
I suppose I should read the whole post, but the opening often telegraphs what the author’s approach is.
Okay - now I read it. The author blames price-fixing.
But fails to acknowledge that there are price fixers on both sides of the Atlantic. The prices there are artificially held low by government interference. Which helps to inflate the U.S. prices.
The author failed to understand the whole story. Again.
A monthly generic prescription I was taking in 2003 cost me out-of-pocket $19/month.
As soon as the Medicare Prescription Drugs Act passed, the next monthly precription refill jumped to $29/month.
I was not even on Medicare at the time.
Insulin is one of the big ones but one of my blood pressure medications is almost fifteen times more expensive here than in Thailand. Everything my wife and I are prescribed are less expensive there than here. I understand there are some drugs that are very difficult to get there but we haven’t had a problem. Lantus insulin was “very expensive” according to the druggist there — $50 US compared to several hundred dollars here.
The same goes for hospital care and procedures. It is scandalous.
Pharmacology is the study of drugs.
ology means "the study of."
It has NOTHING to do with the selling of drugs.
Pharmacologists study drugs is laboratories, with microscopes, making use of chemistry and other sciences.
They also study the EFFECT drugs have.
Karl Denninger should correct his stupidity before he embarrasses himself again.
I wish I could afford to vacation often to a place like Europe. My parents couldn’t afford to vacation on any trip requiring a plane trip or a week’s stay in a hotel. I really feel for the hardships these European travelers face.
Don’t forget the get rich quick lawfare against all things medical as advertised on TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet and billboard here in America.
But his attack on USA drug prices and Big Pharma is deliberately deceptive.
At least 50% of the international research done on medical drugs is paid for by private USA companies.
If there is no profit incentive, there will be no private research, especially since most new drugs do not get approved.
Is Denninger recommending that we turn 100% of pharmaceutical research over to government?
I'm sure that will work out well!