Posted on 07/24/2017 8:13:57 PM PDT by NGC 6822
PARASITES IN US HEALTH CARE In early May my wife and I returned from a short vacation in Peru. Two weeks later I came down with severe diarrhea that has now continued unabated for six weeks. The cause has been identified as a parasite—Blastasytis Species.
This parasite is believed to be present in 23% of the American population and 100% of people in “less developed countries” (Wikipedia). Albendazole is the first line of treatment for this infection.
Albendazole tablets are sold throughout the world (outside of the US) for 1 penny to six cents each and are usually available as a non-prescription drug in any pharmacy. Inside the US the same pill is sold for $219 each (Wikipedia). After Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) approved their share of the cost, I was obliged to write a check for $649 to cover my co-pay for a 3-day supply of 12 pills, i.e. 4 pills per day. This is an experiment with no guarantee that it will be successful.
This medication has been in existence for 45 years. It is a generic medicine with an estimated one billion pills currently on the world market. However, Amenda Pharma (google it) has bought the US distribution rights, and thus they now monopolize the domestic market.
Ignoring parasites currently dining on the inside of my body, I am forced to ask myself the question, “Who are the parasites in the US Health Care System?” Is it the Trial Lawyers Assoc. or the American Medical Assoc. (AMA)? Is it the drug manufactures, or the distributers, or the insurance companies, or the politicians? Maybe the parasites are among the people themselves—the fraudulent claimers.
All I know is that I and my insurer had to pay up to 21,900 times more for pills here in the US than the amount an uninsured peasant pays for the same off-the-shelf medication in the rest of the world!
And please, no offense to the peasants—since I may become one of them soon.
Oh, count me in!
If only a PBS-type telethon would pay to eradicate them!
My LV doctor is actually a specialist in exotic diseases, and he is from India. A very good guy. I will mention it to him.
Incidentally, he is outraged at our system, and told me directly that the company is “ripping off the American people.”
By the way, the new Brit guy Sunday nights on Fox, Steve Hilton, has addressed this whole issue of medical costs in America in a multi-part series about “The Medical Swamp.” The snippets I’ve caught have been well done. His theory is an evil Bermuda Triangle basically, between hospital admins, govt, Big Pharma. Everybody else below that loses.
Worth catching it on the Fox website if it’s there.
Find out the real cost to manufacture...it obviously isn’t 6 cents...there is a “UN Critical Mandate” (price manipulation) involved, so I would imagine that “rich” US patients are subsidizing the 3rd world (including Canada). There are also alternatives for about $13.00 a dose. ( https://www.goodrx.com/ivermectin?drug-name=ivermectin ) Albendazole is a highly specialized drug with a very limited US market...perhaps that is why generic manufacturers haven’t jumped in? Or the manufacturing cost is higher than I think, making it unprofitable for the generic manufacturers. Anyway a bad example to tar pharmaceutical companies with...ironically it is sold/made by the company that supplies the cheap generic for “Epipen”. http://www.amedrapharma.com/amedra-pharmaceuticals/
Here is something I want all people on this thread to know:
My Primary is Medicare. My secondary is Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS). BCBS pays for the medicine.
So, I asked my pharmacist, “Out of curiosity, if I cancel my BCBS, and I pay an extra$100 per month for Medicare Plus, how much would they pay for this drug.
With an apology, he said, “I can’t tell you that because you are not signed up for that program”
Can anybody out there tell me what THAT is supposed to mean?
I know of Steve Hilton, but I have not yet put him on my long recording list of FOX programs. Now I will do it and THANKS a LOT for the tip.
Also, Albendazole isn’t even mentioned by the Mayo Clinic as a treatment for Blastocystis...so there is the distinct possibility that your Dr. and the Amedra pharmaceutical sales rep. are “friendly” (large kickbacks for prescribing?).
I nave noticed time and again that the majority of posters here on FR do NOT have any kind of sympathy for those less fortunate.
Mostly, it is either derision for people that are less-well off, for whatever reason ("They should go out and get another job or get education so they can earn more. If they don't, they're lazy and don't deserve help."), or derision...rightfully earned...due to continuing behaviors that cause one to become sick (homosex, drug use, unhealthy habits, etc.).
Sympathy is something very, very rarely seen on this site.
I’m not sure Medicare ever discloses what their negotiated price is for drugs in their formulary -— but because of the number of patients they represent, they negotiate a really good deal, or so I’ve heard.
Planet Drugs Direct is good.
I am so happy that you made that post, because “the rich America subsidizing the rest of the poor countries” scenario occurred to me very quickly. Now you have given me the proof.
But, here is the problem with that gambit:
1. Why do poor Americans (leave me out) have to subsidize Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, Australians—to say nothing about the rich potentates and all their friends and relatives all around the world.
2. In other words, if the UN wants to help the poor in the world, why don’t they pony up the subsidy and provide it directly to the needy? That’s about the only legitimate job they have to do.
Because the UN has no money?!? is the quick answer. ;-) It is a game...if you had said “hey doc, I am going to have to pay for the meds out my pocket” I am sure you would have gotten a different (much cheaper) Rx. Especially since Mayo says: “A Blastocystis hominis infection usually clears up on its own. There are no proven treatments for these infections. But, if your symptoms don’t get better, your doctor may recommend trying certain medications.” Your Doc used a $400. 12-gauge shotgun on an ant?!?
What you say simply can’t be true. The United States has the best health care system in the world.
NIfster seems to have all the answers about why titanium screws are justifiably priced at $242 each so maybe he has an answer about why this simple but necessary medicine needs to cost 21,000 times more in the United States than anywhere else. I”m confident there will be some excuse. I’ve included him on this post to let him weigh in.
It can’t possibly be because people in medicine and business in this country are money grubbing sorry bastards who only care about profit.
Signed,
Hotshot
Gosh, that sounds a little jealous or something.
Being successful enough to be able to travel to Peru does not exempt someone from reporting and even complaining about organized crime.
You are a very sad person. You are so blinded by your personal prejudices that you cannot even understand that my motivations—whatever you think they are—are totally irrelevant. The facts are that poor people-never mind me—are being ripped off for a drug that they may seriously need. But I think your priorities are much different than that. People with very limited access to this drug are secondary to your MAIN interest of skewering posters and readers on this web site.
Get a Life.
Try it and put yourself at risk for being caught and charged by DEA.
There is a great pain relief creme that can be bought over the counter in most of the world. It is made in Germany by Novartis and is called Voltaren Gel and it goes by the generic name of diclofenac sodium topical gel 1%. If you want to risk arrest you can order it from Europe for about TEN bucks for a large tube.
If you want to stay legal you can go to a doc here for $75 and get him to write a prescription and go pick some up at the pharmacy for between 60 and 90 bucks for a small tube. The veterinary version for horses is about the same price here in the US because it too is controlled. FDA having been convinced we are too stupid to buy it on our own. It is, after all, basically ibuprofen with a carrier that penetrates the skin. Nasty dangerous stuff.
Never forget though that we have the very best medical system in the world. It is the best system MONEY can buy but only the people that have lots of money or no money can afford it. The rest of us just pay the taxes so the do nothings can get what we can’t afford.
The matter is not that you can afford it. The matter of it is the Principal that neither you or anyone else should be held hostage because of a monopoly.
This is a very old generic that one company has a monopoly on in the Untied States. It literally is pennies in cost outside of the United States.
If there was only one oil company in the United States and you were paying 150 dollars a gallon for gas, what would you say?
I am a total believer in free enterprise and capitalism. This is neither. This is a company buying up distribution rights and thus becoming a monopoly.
Self-government without self-control will not work.
Look, I take your point. In fact I posted above somewhere that there are GOOD AND BAD people in these various institutions. In fact, I absolutely support a pharmaceutical research company that spends years and supports top researchers to discover drugs for exotic diseases. And they are absolutely justified in charging high prices to try to recover their costs. That is why most of these miracle drugs come out of America and not out of most other places in the world.
But the Albedazole is a different thing. It has been around for 45 years. It is a generic drug. It is sold for pennies everywhere outside of America. If it were only a few dollars in this country, it would be tolerable. But $219 dollars is not defensible.
Furthermore, the company, Amenda Pharma has been bought out by another company (google it), and that company is going around the country buying DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS for other generic drugs and blowing out the prices. Neither political party is doing anything concrete about it. You like capitalism? ME TOO!
All I ask is that we allow the bedrock of capitalism to be unleashed—FREE COMPETITION! I think you will agree.
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