1. They all feature Trump flip-flop. They never mention that it is precisely Obamacare which was written by pharma lobbyists and dismantling Obamacare is dismantling favoritism for big Pharma.
2. More importantly, all media miss the real reform that is needed. Half of prescription drugs should not be prescription drugs. We first have to pay a doctor to write a prescription. Our insurance company then writes another payment to the doctor. Then we and the insurance make a second payment to the pharmacist. Included in that is the costs of the middlemen. But the pharmacist himself is a middleman.
We should be paying a stockboy to stock the shelves for over-the-counter sales of half of all drugs that currently require a prescription.
The media does not even mention the greatest opportunity to reduce drug costs.
All of what you have said is very true. Trying to turn “big pharma” into the enemy/target is a waste of time in dealing with the real problem, which is actually not the cost of common drugs but the elaborate insurance stuff that goes on around them in order to get reimbursement. Every time I get a prescription - which is pretty rare, and it’s always for something common, like an antibiotic or decongestant - I receive a mass of paperwork from my insurer. I can’t even get it electronically and have to open this huge envelope that includes a chaos of disclaimers. Bureaucracy has probably inflated the cost of that medication at least 2 or 3 times.
It costs drug companies a lot to develop a drug, and some drugs will be expensive. They have to be. So don’t try to get the companies to charge less (since they already don’t charge a lot for the most useful things) but figure out how to pay for them in a way that keeps the new drug pipeline funded and open. And fund more research so that even rarer diseases can get treatment, since learning about those benefits all of us. But the companies can’t do it without the bucks.
The ceo’s make $50 million and denied coverage for people.
The whole capitalist system is full of “middlemen”. Big government is also full of “middlemen”. Not sure where that is going.
Whatever they do I hope they don’t squash the incentives for research and development of new drugs which is a risky enterprise and has to be paid for somehow.
FMCDH(BITS)
5/14/2018, 7:05:40 PM · by spintreebob · 3 replies Modern Healthcare and many others ^ | 5-14-18 | Many http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20180511/NEWS/180519968 https://www.statnews.com/2018/05/11/trump-drug-pricing-speech/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-denounces-middlemen-and-largely-spares-pharma-in-drug-pricing-speech/ http://www.bipc.com/trump-condemns-middlemen-in-drug-pricing-speech-modern-healthcare https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2018/05/14/the-health-202-health-industry-appears-unfazed-by-trump-s-drug-pricing-speech/5af4ac5530fb042588799464/ http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/health-plans/eliminating-middlemen-trump-takes-aim-pbms-drug-pricing-speech http://www.bipc.com/trump-condemns-middlemen-in-drug-pricing-speech-modern-healthcare
Having been finally priced out of my Health Insurance (50% of my income just wasn’t doable) I was faced with paying for my own prescriptions again. I have 3 that I simply have to take.
A friend turned me on to “GoodRX”
A free ap you can put on your phone, that provides discounts on meds. They give you the discounted price from all the providers in your area.
CVS was going to charge me more for a cash purchase than what it was costing me while still meeting my deductible.
2 of the 3 were going to cost me $160/mo combined.
With the GoodRX download, it cost me a total of $38 for 3 months worth at Krogers.
The 3rd was going to cost me $399/mo.... with discount, $155 at Meiers
Whole lot of price mark-upping goin’ on.
wife uses a drug that costs $480 per month in the U.S. or
$480 for 3 months from canadadrug. Now after mid July we
are told canadadrug will no longer be able to sell to the U.S. market. sigh, what to do.
Side Affects include....
It seems when I have the media on, every other commercial is for a drug. Cash cows for the media.
The biggest scam in the Pharma business is the evergreening of their drugs. When it gets close to the patent expiring, the companies “improve the product” by making a small, but unimportant changes to get the patent renewed; and of course, always raising the price.
Maybe Trump is learning to pick his targets. It is true the “middlemen”, who are not even the pharmacists, rake a horrendous slice. Big pharma does the research which creates more cures, And they get their pants sued off all the time.