Posted on 05/09/2018 7:02:11 AM PDT by caww
Trump’s budget proposal set out several reforms for lowering drug prices, including giving low-income seniors free generic drugs.
Azar said the agency wants to solve problems such as the high list prices set by drug makers and “seniors" and government programs overpaying for drugs due to the lack of the latest negotiating tools; rising out-of-pocket costs for consumers; and foreign governments free-riding off American investment in innovation.”
Azar also touched on the need for greater transparency of prices of healthcare procedures..........“I believe you ought to have the right to know what a procedure is going to cost, and what it’s going to cost you, out of pocket — before you get it,”
Azar and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb have blasted what they call unfair rebate agreements negotiated between insurers, drug middlemen and manufacturers. The officials have said consumers don't benefit enough from the rebates.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Just allow re-importation from Canada.
WSJ had a good article in yesterday’s edition about the drug groups paying kickbacks to hispitals and clinics. Busting up the legal protection awarded these groups would be a better first start.
Prices like that make a grown man holler.
Did anyone here ever realize that there was no ‘opioid crisis ‘ before Obama’s reign? His healthcare model of ‘maybe you should just take a pain pill’ has destroyed many people. Perhaps those people would have benefited from receiving actual HEALTHCARE, instead of being fobbed off with opioids.
because that is exactly what you are advocating.
He will then have to undo the SET/RESTRICTIONS on Medicare, Tricare, and Medicaid. ALL are RATIONED CARE. Medicaid has less restrictions than the other 2.
MEDICARE/TRICARE HAVE NO RIGHT OF APPEAL!
Rein in the lawyers and insurance jackals
There is no Opioid Crisis. It’s simply another ginned-up story to further government intrusion in your health care. The facts are available to anyone: there has been no appreciable increase in either opioid use or fatalities over the last decade. The increase in fatalities is directly attributable to fentanyl—no doctors involved whatsoever.
Fentanyl production and distribution should be classified as terrorism. Street quantities have no legitimate medical purpose and are equivalent to WMDs.
Torturing granny by withholding her pain meds ain’t helping anyone. All the government bastards pushing this should contract a painful chronic disease and be denied any medication.
I totally agree with your last statement, and I would like to see the statistics on opioid deaths not related to fentanyl. I suspect you are correct in your assessment. And anyone without a chronic pain problem really doesn’t understand what chronic pain does. It completely saps your strength. I heard yesterday that Walmart has decided to only fill pain medications for a week at a time. That would just mean that those who get their medications from Walmart will have to go every week instead of only once a month. Bad move Walmart.
Price controls? No, prices are cheaper in Canada. Let people buy from there. The only price controls currently in place are the Federal laws FORCING Americans to pay higher prices. Prices that the drug companies don’t demand from Canadians.
I’m all for capitalism, but the whole Big Pharma, the insurance companies, and hospitals that pay off Congress is the reason people are being extorted.
That industry is not a free market, it is an effective monopoly protected by the government.
Ever wonder why the prices for drugs are cheaper in Canada and Europe ?
Well well, NOW we are getting closer to the REAL issue !
Because Canada and Europe negotiate prices, as in any buyer/seller relationship. A practice forbidden by LAW here in the U.S. for Medicare/Medicaid, so we the taxpayers subsidize the lower foreign prices by paying the highest prices, all declared by Government fiat as a gift to Big Pharma.
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