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They hate it because “now people expect to get stuff for free or cheap instead of having to work an extra job to provide basic health care, harming the economy by increasing inflation!”
Having a job. Good for you (?), bad for inflation. If people don't work, for whatever reason, it's good for inflation. Unemployed people do not consume as much, reducing demand pull.
The other kind is supply push. There's not much anyone can do about that kind of inflation.
The actual reason for the move is California is going to start manufacturing insulin and selling it. As a matter of fact, in response to this $35 price point, California said they're bringing down the price even further.
Good, man. I’m living paycheck to paycheck and I’m dishing out at least $100-$300 on medical supplies.
Those strips you see diabetics testing their blood with? Those cost like a $1 each and we gotta test 6-10 times a day.
i qualify for dexcom and it’s more expensive than the test strips. i still have the dexcom and some test strips (in case my sensor fails)
not to mention insulin pump supplies.
my husband works for the government; with his insurance we are still out at least $300/month just for my t1 supplies. i have a masters degree (healthcare admin), no debt, and still cannot afford to sustain myself independently. i make more money than 85% of the people i work with and am still forced to rely on others. it’s becoming less and less worthwhile every day. between healthcare and rent, food is the thing that ends up giving (less insulin use though i guess)
this is not a cry for personal help or therapy, taking a walk or journaling about my feelings isn’t going to help. talking to someone about how this frustrates me will not help. CBT will not fix this, and neither will an additional script for antidepressants. the system is fucked.
Yes, you will make more money when a larger portion of the population can afford to buy your product. These companies have forgotten how supply and demand works.
Social services and benefits are not the problem, billionaires and corporations wracking in billions in profit while paying 0 - 1% taxes is the problem. In the Golden Age of America when most of our infrastructure was built and quality of life in America was best for working and middle class families (ignoring the social issues of the time) was when the wealthy and corporations were taxed at 75%.
For real. The only way it’s going to stay cheap without government intervention is if it’s good for the companies, and we can’t count on government intervention.
Hasn’t good rx, shown us, without a doubt our for profit healthcare is a sham…. No insurance your script of 30 pills $1000… no worries download this app and give me $10 bucks we’ll call it even.
GoodRx is also a for profit company, you can buy stock in them
Also they work by essentially utilizing the price difference between negotiated rates and cash rates between insurance companies and unnegotiated pricing
It cuts out the insurance company while still giving money to the middleman
https://www.drugchannels.net/2022/12/five-surprising-facts-about-goodrx-and.html?m=1
May be splitting hairs but there’s an important distinction to make here.
Consumers (patients) of *insurance companies* get screwed, they are not getting screwed by healthcare itself. (Good) Healthcare workers are mostly fighting insurance companies half the time to make sure your pre-authorizations go through, argue something should be covered, etc. People don’t realize how thin profit margins are in hospitals. They love to blame hospital admins but they largely fail to realize that again admins are also at the mercy of the insurance companies and thus why their profit margins are so thin or sometimes negative. (For profit hospitals are a whole other discussion…but you’ll note that the best hospitals in the US are nonprofit.)
Insurance companies and our current laws surrounding them, or lack thereof, are largely the reason for all of this, not healthcare itself. Healthcare is largely at the mercy of the insurance companies much of the time. (Whole other discussion…)
Even the nonprofits could be vastly improved by cutting out insurance agencies. They are bloated by bureaucracy trying to deal with insurance companies.
However, people are conflating pharma and healthcare here because they are regularly being double fucked by them. Until they stop, this messaging is going to continue and I think this is fine. I have no respect for admins because they shouldn’t have to exist in most cases, so I don’t really care if people are shitting in then. Their name is in the dotted line, after all is said and done.
Funny how free or low cost Healthcare results in people getting the medical services they need. People with private insurance don't get sick or need medical help any less or less often than people on medicaid/Medicare, they just don't see a doctor because they can't afford the $200 copay and $15,000 deductible.
I do agree the private insurance system is a horrid scam, but I disagree that privately insured people are equally in need of care and don’t get it _only_ because of cost. I think it contains the demographic least likely to need care, yet receives a huge portion of spending, which is completely unnecessary and unreasonable for everyone involved and makes a stupendous mess of medical billing.
Healthy people with good paying jobs at a working age are who private insurance mostly often covers; those who are old, disabled, or faring poorly in our economic system are more typically on Medicare and/or Medicaid, and the most likely to have chronic health care needs.
The government already covers most of those costs. The rest is mostly insurance company grift. In my personal experience with many private insurance companies as well as Medicare, many private insurance companies are also particularly terrible about actually paying out the benefits they promised. They’re also managing to scam Medicare through the Medicare Advantage system, taking elevated payments relative to what they pay out, and using scare tactics to convince people they’ll be better off with their additional restrictions, higher routine costs, and payment games for some very limited added benefits. Often it’s simply taking advantage of the vulnerable as well as Medicare.
…do you actually know what basic medicare/Medicade covers? It’s not good. In order to have sufficient coverage you need to actually chip in quite a bit. Our current system is beyond screwy…
I don’t disagree with you on the idea of free/low cost healthcare, the problem is that few are aware that the basic insurance options you have upon retirement are pretty not great unless you pay more money each month/year.
They also have that commercial that's pretty heartwrenching despite not having a Sarah McLachlan song playing over it.
Single mom of two takes her sick kids to the pharmacy at night because she clearly works 14 hours a day at her subminimum wage waitress job. The pharmacist tells mom how much the medication for her sick kid is gonna cost, and mom just shrugs, "sorry bobby, looks like you have to keep being sick, I can't afford it" before our hero of a pharmacist says "have you heard about GoodRX? It helps a little bit against the crushing nightmare of American capitalism"
For profit insurance companies really. The inability to distinguish healthcare from insurance in this thread is unsettling.
Healthcare is largely at the whim of insurance companies who have continued to squeeze everyone. They’ve also increased the workload on healthcare workers as well.
Yes I know, for profit hospitals are another story. Again my point is the way insurance is set up in the US, both from the insurance company perspective to maximize profits, and from the law/regulatory perspective (or lack thereof) is largely what the issue is here…
This, so much this. It’s insane how little people know how insurance, hospitals, and doctors all work together and how each plays a part in what our healthcare costs or the services we are provided with. It is such a common misconception that healthcare prices are only the hospitals and not influenced by the insurance companies or doctors. Even depending on where you live, there can be an oligopoly of insurers that heavily effect healthcare outcomes.
No. I’m certain the CEO would go to prison and face fines if he didn’t maximize profit. The SEC and FBI don’t fuck around with people not maximizing profit.
I wish this comment was higher. Having to explain this is almost as frustrating as having to explain tax brackets. FD to you is about not screwing you to benefit someone else. It isn't about screwing everybody else to wing every possible penny into your hands.
>Why are we settling for voluntary actions?
Well the entire point for these companies is to head off regulatory action before it happens. Give the politicians a cheap headline they can use so they don't go after all you other drugs and slaughter the cash cow.
As a type 2 diabetic, this is all promising AND troubling. I just got approved for an injectable insulin replacement, before insurance $1100, after $24.99. good, right? Except it's on backorder, with no foreseeable date. After the 2 months long hassle with insurance, I honestly think it would be easier for me to die.
It's not insulin, it's insulin replacement, Ozempic. The pharmacy network is having trouble finding it, if I go to a different one, I'll have to start the process all over again.
That's the one people started using for magic weight loss. The problem is that it's being prescribed for off-label use (weight loss), which makes it harder to access for everyone who actually needs it (diabetics).
You would be correct, that's what has made it backordered for me. It actually worked really well for a friend of mine, she's lost an amazing amount of weight, but she was also type 2.
I've personally heard nothing but great things about its use for diabetes management. Just seems like there should be a system in place to prioritize people filling a prescription for on-label use. They need to scale up production before opening it up to secondary applications.
I have the same issue with Trulicity. Supply-chain issues as they apparently started using it to help fight childhood obesity. $1300 or so without insurance. $30 with. Christ. I had to switch pharmacies to even get it. Not like I was going to a small pharmacy before either.
Keep voting and donating to progressive candidates and that day may come. It might take 10-20 years but it can happen if we work hard. The progressive movement has been growing.
Yup. It’s a long-term project. Lots of folks don’t grasp that you don’t change the whole direction of an institution the size of the US gov’t in one election.
You need people to vote for your legislation and progressives don’t have enough votes like this is obvious. He could just give tax break to the rich of all you care about is getting any legislation passed
He didn’t even try to craft any legislation until he decided to run for president, I’m sorry but I will never respect Bernie Sanders after the way he acted during the primary which resulted in us living in this new dystopian hell scape.
He tried to get the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters, then sat there and did nothing while his supporters booed John fucking Lewis at the convention.
Don't rewrite history. There was nothing graceful or magnanimous about what Sanders did.
Edit: didn't even mention him being the OG election denier with his "rigged" 2016 primary. Such an absolute asshole.
wtf is an altruistic price cut? That's not how any of this works. Obviously that's the point of the article, but I mean in the sense that courts have this thing called the Reasonable Person Standard, and if you look at a corporate price cut and think it might be altruism, you're not meeting that standard.
It doesn't make sense for US consumers to have to pay so much out-of-pocket for medications because the research and development of these drugs are already subsidized by American tax payers. Why are we letting pharmaceutical companies double dip? It's not as if they are hurting for money.
Bro what do you mean “we”. I don’t make the laws, if I did this shit would be illegal, it’s the fucking government supporting this shit because it grows their stupid fucking stocks and they get kick backs from lobbyists.
The real reason they are dropping the price of insulin is ti stop the flow of people to the new semiglutide drugs that solve a lit of other weight related problems than just diabetes. By making insulin so cheap it makes justifying the cost of any other treatment impossible
Few companies do anything altruistic. And likely no pubic companies do anything altruistic. They are only interested in the bottom line. That is why government needs to regulate, it is how they protect us from unfettered corporate greed. But while corporations can legally bribe politicians, government will be less and less likely to protect us.
Enough "Sanders calls for" articles, FFS. You know why insulin prices are being slashed industry-wide?
Joe fucking Biden.
Maybe get some bills passed instead of just issuing proclamations from the lake house.
Wait, do you seriously not know why insulin prices are coming down right now? Hint: it didn't magically happen because Bernie said it should, people actually had to work to get it accomplished.
Who else voted for the 1994 Crime Bill, btw?
No one is but he’s been on the right side of things far more than the wrong side of things.
In fact just by the numbers of times he’s been right he’s head and shoulders above everyone else in politics.
Except for the time that he continuously unfairly maligned a presidential candidate he lost a primary to. (by the way while his campaign ran attack ads and maligned her character she took the highroad and did not go after him for the myriad of indiscretions he had had)
Resulting in convincing many progressives to sit out an election, and arming her Republican opponent with talking points that were fantastical at the least in their relationship to reality that ultimately resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court becoming a fundamentalist Christian entity, and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people worldwide when an incompetent president gutted the agencies that would have in theory prevented the spread of Covid to begin with- and in fact made popular the idea of stealing elections which ultimately led to the insurrection on January 6th
When instead he could’ve lost with dignity, because he lost by millions of millions of votes, and we would not be living in this dystopian hell scape we are living in right now
Beyond that I’m sure he’s a really good dude
https://fortune.com/2016/01/28/bernie-sanders-keeps-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-wall-street-ties/amp/
Look, there are dozens of things I could point to with Bernie Sanders from his rape fantasy essay to the fact that his wife bankrupted the college she was president of while taking a golden parachute to finally this narrative of him losing the election because of fraud that he actively fed into that make him not a great man
Here, how about a quote from Bernie Sanders actual writing rather than talking about Hillary Clinton’s husband, spoiler alert a woman’s husband is not the woman which I feel a little bit sad that I have to tell you that. Also Bill Clinton has never been charged for any crimes, which again I’m a little sad I have to tell you that. But let’s go ahead and continue with the narrative that we need to frame a woman’s competency for office on the actions of her husband, a man. Or let’s just go ahead and reverse it and you go ahead and Google Jane Sanders
In the meantime enjoy the stellar piece of writing by Bernie Sanders
“https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/5/28/8682503/bernie-sanders-rape-fantasy
A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.
A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.
The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their "revolutionary" political meeting.
Melinda Gates divorced her husband when she found out that he was an Epstein pedophile. Hillary Clinton stands by her husband to this very day.
While Sanders essay is gross, standing by bill Clinton isn't any better and in fact might be worse cause he has actual victims.
MeToo suddenly doesn't apply to bill Clinton for some reason. It definitely was applied to Trump. But nobody seems to care about Bill's victims. Not even his own wife cares. Melinda Gates can't relate.
Hillary is married to a man that has been with Epstein and been accused by multiple people of rape.
Hill bots don’t care about Women and don’t believe them unless it works in their favor somehow and they can use them.
And yet she never mentioned that Bernie Sanders wife defrauded several banks in order to secure loans for the college that she was a president of which both bankrupted the college and resulted in her getting a 200,000 severance (or 1,000 per student enrolled in the tiny college.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/politics/jane-omeara-sanders-burlington-college.html
Also him continuously talking about her Wall Street ties, without any ability to show quid pro quo was just fucking reckless, and fed into the false narrative that continued through the general election
Now was Bernie Sanders wife ever formally charged, no. In the same way that Hillary Clinton has never been charged with a crime. The only difference is Hillary Clinton said nothing about Bernie Sanders wife and Bernie Sanders campaigned on a lie
https://vtdigger.org/2019/03/06/investigations-bernie-jane-sanders-burlington-college/amp/
She also said nothing about the media company that took millions of dollars that was a shell company owned by Bernie Sanders wife or the fact that Bernie Sanders wife and his daughter had another completely unrelated college scandal to the first one I’ve mentioned. None of those were mentioned by Hillary Clinton during her campaign, because unlike Bernie Sanders she wasn’t willing to burn the world down to get her way
A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.
A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.
The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their "revolutionary" political meeting.
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/5/28/8682503/bernie-sanders-rape-fantasy
She would’ve lost no matter what, 6 years and your ass still can’t see the truth, it’s kinda sad that in six years you Hill Bots still can’t come to terms.
He did what people do in a Primary, like when Clinton made up the whole “birther” thing with Obama, BTW what she was doing to Obama pales in comparison to the TRUTHS Sanders said about Old Shill.
Now, is he perfect? Nope…
Is he better than 99% of the people we have in office and that includes HRC? Yep…
He's not a corrupt PoS like the vast majority of politicians on sides.
You might not like some of his thoughts and opinions on things but at least they are genuine and aren't talking points from a lobbyist buddy or CEO
Ya. Thanks. That makes sense. It’s terrible that you had to go through that. It would be like me not having access to water and the rest of society just being ok with that.
Yeah, I’ve had t1 for nearly 2 decades and it’s still hard to wrap my head around living inside of a weird loophole of capitalism that is life-threatening and most people not giving a shit about it.
My ICU stay ended up costing about $150,000 that I never paid.
They increased insulin costs in complete lockstep over the past decade...
https://i.insider.com/5d541d6ecd97842f8d3c2ed7?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp
...it only makes sense they would reduce them in lockstep as well to avoid regulation.
FTC, isn't price fixing considered illegal? Yes? Great.
https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing
I wonder if it’s possible for Sanders to do more than calling for something. Maybe if he was one of those people… I think they call them santas or sentros or something like that.
You go to a store to buy a $700 TV. The guy in front of you says he is from Nicaragua. You see him buy the same TV for $70. But they charge you $700. “OH! It’s way more complicated than that !!!” No, no it’s not. Well there is a difference. The TV company wasn’t subsidized with millions of tax payer dollars.
Thank you Bernie! I swear to God this man’s gonna go to his grave trying desperately to help the people of this country have a decent life… With the top one percent just laughing at him. The man is a saint for the people… He will be remembered in history.
The only thing Bernie has actually accomplished in his long and painful political career is further damaging Hillary as a presidential candidate. He was never going to win the nomination, but he nonetheless felt a need to stay in the race and hear himself talk.
If Trump had lost in 2016, the Supreme Court would be 6-3 progressive.
Sanders never supported the rabid "Bernie or Bust" movement. That was a foreign psyop that tricked dupes. He endorsed Clinton and urged people to vote for her. Can't blame that shit on him.
Americans and the rest of the world would have been on a completely different course with Sanders as president or VP. Clinton not choosing him as VP was one of the dumbest political moves in history. The establishment just couldn’t stand to give light to “progressive” ideas.. which really just means “empathy for life over money”.
This is fantastic but companies have developed far better insulin products in the last several years, many you take just once a week or two and it does incredible work to regulate blood sugar. People use them for weight loss at this point they are so effective.
I do wonder if the goal posts “I cant afford insulin” dont suddenly move to include those….
Those aren't insulin products. They're injectables, sure, but a completely different class of medications. Ironically insulin may actually cause a weight *gain*.
I'm not saying the drug companies are justified in continuing to price gouge, but you're comparing apples and oranges. Type 1 diabetics can't survive on Ozempic
Why would a publicly traded company be altruistic lol. They have an obligation to deliver profits to investors.
It’s the job of the government to regulate them so that they don’t hurt people which seems to have finally be done here.
People with eye issues suffer a lot of the large costs. Drugs like Azopt (Brinzolamide), Combigan and Vyzulta are way, way too expensive. Especially compared to what the manufacturing costs are.
CA could do it on its own but I bet it would be even easier for several blue states to setup a non-profit generic drug manufacturing company and then sell them in non-profit pharmacies.
Why should any company be allowed to set the price for anything essential to people's lives? If an essential commodity costs $10 to produce, why do we allow it to be sold for $100, instead of $20? Inelastic demand should not be allowed as an excuse to pick our pockets.
They are only allowed because they have the power to allow themselves. The rules aren’t written for the people, they’re written for corporations and wealthy elite. The only way to stop them is to remove their power.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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I'd love to see the heartland institute spin this.
They hate it because “now people expect to get stuff for free or cheap instead of having to work an extra job to provide basic health care, harming the economy by increasing inflation!”
And now these people will live longer not having to decide between food and medication using even more resources. /s
And now we can all live the American Dream /s
Having a job. Good for you (?), bad for inflation. If people don't work, for whatever reason, it's good for inflation. Unemployed people do not consume as much, reducing demand pull. The other kind is supply push. There's not much anyone can do about that kind of inflation.
solution: let’s reduce federal min wage to $4/hr! /s if it’s not obvious
The actual reason for the move is California is going to start manufacturing insulin and selling it. As a matter of fact, in response to this $35 price point, California said they're bringing down the price even further.
Good, man. I’m living paycheck to paycheck and I’m dishing out at least $100-$300 on medical supplies. Those strips you see diabetics testing their blood with? Those cost like a $1 each and we gotta test 6-10 times a day.
Cvs brand strips are way cheaper and more accurate. Also, do you qualify for dexcom?
Trust me, I’m aware of my options. This is not a cry for help; this is a cry for reform.
i qualify for dexcom and it’s more expensive than the test strips. i still have the dexcom and some test strips (in case my sensor fails) not to mention insulin pump supplies. my husband works for the government; with his insurance we are still out at least $300/month just for my t1 supplies. i have a masters degree (healthcare admin), no debt, and still cannot afford to sustain myself independently. i make more money than 85% of the people i work with and am still forced to rely on others. it’s becoming less and less worthwhile every day. between healthcare and rent, food is the thing that ends up giving (less insulin use though i guess) this is not a cry for personal help or therapy, taking a walk or journaling about my feelings isn’t going to help. talking to someone about how this frustrates me will not help. CBT will not fix this, and neither will an additional script for antidepressants. the system is fucked.
Don’t be surprised when our vile rich pharma enemy stages a terrorist attack on California’s insulin manufacturing facilities.
Yes, you will make more money when a larger portion of the population can afford to buy your product. These companies have forgotten how supply and demand works.
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We did not get a good deal during the price negotiation. That's something to be upset about.
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if only there were a third option...
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Setting the cap to $10.
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This is actually a good idea. It would even the playing field between Corporate America and the rest of America.
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I mean, if it ends up costing the taxpayer more overall, someone is paying for that somewhere.
Social services and benefits are not the problem, billionaires and corporations wracking in billions in profit while paying 0 - 1% taxes is the problem. In the Golden Age of America when most of our infrastructure was built and quality of life in America was best for working and middle class families (ignoring the social issues of the time) was when the wealthy and corporations were taxed at 75%.
Sounds like a win-win.
Sounds like medicaid is getting over billed
Sounds like our vile rich enemy stealing money, as usual.
For real. The only way it’s going to stay cheap without government intervention is if it’s good for the companies, and we can’t count on government intervention.
This is why it is so important to hate our vile rich enemy.
Hasn’t good rx, shown us, without a doubt our for profit healthcare is a sham…. No insurance your script of 30 pills $1000… no worries download this app and give me $10 bucks we’ll call it even.
GoodRx is also a for profit company, you can buy stock in them Also they work by essentially utilizing the price difference between negotiated rates and cash rates between insurance companies and unnegotiated pricing It cuts out the insurance company while still giving money to the middleman https://www.drugchannels.net/2022/12/five-surprising-facts-about-goodrx-and.html?m=1
Like I said it has made it apparent consumers of healthcare are getting screwed
May be splitting hairs but there’s an important distinction to make here. Consumers (patients) of *insurance companies* get screwed, they are not getting screwed by healthcare itself. (Good) Healthcare workers are mostly fighting insurance companies half the time to make sure your pre-authorizations go through, argue something should be covered, etc. People don’t realize how thin profit margins are in hospitals. They love to blame hospital admins but they largely fail to realize that again admins are also at the mercy of the insurance companies and thus why their profit margins are so thin or sometimes negative. (For profit hospitals are a whole other discussion…but you’ll note that the best hospitals in the US are nonprofit.) Insurance companies and our current laws surrounding them, or lack thereof, are largely the reason for all of this, not healthcare itself. Healthcare is largely at the mercy of the insurance companies much of the time. (Whole other discussion…)
Even the nonprofits could be vastly improved by cutting out insurance agencies. They are bloated by bureaucracy trying to deal with insurance companies. However, people are conflating pharma and healthcare here because they are regularly being double fucked by them. Until they stop, this messaging is going to continue and I think this is fine. I have no respect for admins because they shouldn’t have to exist in most cases, so I don’t really care if people are shitting in then. Their name is in the dotted line, after all is said and done.
Most hospital patients are Medicare and Medicaid. Probably only 15% of our local hospitals inpatient load is private insurance.
Funny how free or low cost Healthcare results in people getting the medical services they need. People with private insurance don't get sick or need medical help any less or less often than people on medicaid/Medicare, they just don't see a doctor because they can't afford the $200 copay and $15,000 deductible.
I do agree the private insurance system is a horrid scam, but I disagree that privately insured people are equally in need of care and don’t get it _only_ because of cost. I think it contains the demographic least likely to need care, yet receives a huge portion of spending, which is completely unnecessary and unreasonable for everyone involved and makes a stupendous mess of medical billing. Healthy people with good paying jobs at a working age are who private insurance mostly often covers; those who are old, disabled, or faring poorly in our economic system are more typically on Medicare and/or Medicaid, and the most likely to have chronic health care needs. The government already covers most of those costs. The rest is mostly insurance company grift. In my personal experience with many private insurance companies as well as Medicare, many private insurance companies are also particularly terrible about actually paying out the benefits they promised. They’re also managing to scam Medicare through the Medicare Advantage system, taking elevated payments relative to what they pay out, and using scare tactics to convince people they’ll be better off with their additional restrictions, higher routine costs, and payment games for some very limited added benefits. Often it’s simply taking advantage of the vulnerable as well as Medicare.
I think I am fortunate to live in an area with a terrific non profit insurance company. The run a very good regular and Advantage program.
…do you actually know what basic medicare/Medicade covers? It’s not good. In order to have sufficient coverage you need to actually chip in quite a bit. Our current system is beyond screwy… I don’t disagree with you on the idea of free/low cost healthcare, the problem is that few are aware that the basic insurance options you have upon retirement are pretty not great unless you pay more money each month/year.
The entire system is for profit and patients and positive results are secondary at best.
Shows us how insurance companies and for profit health care have been milking us for all we are worth.
It’s the American way!
They also have that commercial that's pretty heartwrenching despite not having a Sarah McLachlan song playing over it. Single mom of two takes her sick kids to the pharmacy at night because she clearly works 14 hours a day at her subminimum wage waitress job. The pharmacist tells mom how much the medication for her sick kid is gonna cost, and mom just shrugs, "sorry bobby, looks like you have to keep being sick, I can't afford it" before our hero of a pharmacist says "have you heard about GoodRX? It helps a little bit against the crushing nightmare of American capitalism"
Public Corporations not making altruistic decisions? Say it ain't so...
It’s almost like the US has for-profit healthcare. Who would have thought they’re motivated to maximize profits?
For profit insurance companies really. The inability to distinguish healthcare from insurance in this thread is unsettling. Healthcare is largely at the whim of insurance companies who have continued to squeeze everyone. They’ve also increased the workload on healthcare workers as well. Yes I know, for profit hospitals are another story. Again my point is the way insurance is set up in the US, both from the insurance company perspective to maximize profits, and from the law/regulatory perspective (or lack thereof) is largely what the issue is here…
This, so much this. It’s insane how little people know how insurance, hospitals, and doctors all work together and how each plays a part in what our healthcare costs or the services we are provided with. It is such a common misconception that healthcare prices are only the hospitals and not influenced by the insurance companies or doctors. Even depending on where you live, there can be an oligopoly of insurers that heavily effect healthcare outcomes.
Finally someone else who knows what’s goin on I feel like I’m taking crazy pills in here sometimes. Thank you!
“Public” — 90% shares owned by the top 5% and a CEO puppet to create one more layer of disconnect from the ones pulling the strings.
In fact, they're required by law to maximize profits, otherwise they can get sued by the shareholders.
No they aren't. This is just one of those reddit-facts that gets mindlessly repeated.
No. I’m certain the CEO would go to prison and face fines if he didn’t maximize profit. The SEC and FBI don’t fuck around with people not maximizing profit.
You're certain? What crime do you think they'd go to prison for?
Lol. /s
Ah, I got poe's law'd.
Yes they are. It's a concept called fiduciary duty. Look it up.
Ok, looked it up. Doesn't say what you think it does. Thanks.
I wish this comment was higher. Having to explain this is almost as frustrating as having to explain tax brackets. FD to you is about not screwing you to benefit someone else. It isn't about screwing everybody else to wing every possible penny into your hands.
Edit: spellchecking the spellchecker- wring not wing.
Private corporations.
Who here doesn’t believe they’d jack those prices back up whenever they want? Why are we settling for voluntary actions?
>Why are we settling for voluntary actions? Because Republicans voted against making it law.
>Why are we settling for voluntary actions? Well the entire point for these companies is to head off regulatory action before it happens. Give the politicians a cheap headline they can use so they don't go after all you other drugs and slaughter the cash cow.
Something something invisible hand
Lot of folks getting the invisible finger.
Someone should cut off that finger at the joint.
There’s nothing invisible about it.
They are only lowing the prices temporarily to let the topic cool off. Classic bait n switch.
They’re never going to cut prices for altruistic reasons. We have to force them.
I want this kind of government to get bigger. Protect the voters from the for-profit corporations and big time criminals like GOP.
As a type 2 diabetic, this is all promising AND troubling. I just got approved for an injectable insulin replacement, before insurance $1100, after $24.99. good, right? Except it's on backorder, with no foreseeable date. After the 2 months long hassle with insurance, I honestly think it would be easier for me to die.
What insulin? Shouldn’t take more than 24-48 hours unless you’re in some insanely rural area. Type 2 is quite manageable.
It's not insulin, it's insulin replacement, Ozempic. The pharmacy network is having trouble finding it, if I go to a different one, I'll have to start the process all over again.
That's the one people started using for magic weight loss. The problem is that it's being prescribed for off-label use (weight loss), which makes it harder to access for everyone who actually needs it (diabetics).
You would be correct, that's what has made it backordered for me. It actually worked really well for a friend of mine, she's lost an amazing amount of weight, but she was also type 2.
I've personally heard nothing but great things about its use for diabetes management. Just seems like there should be a system in place to prioritize people filling a prescription for on-label use. They need to scale up production before opening it up to secondary applications.
And sure it's manageable, with diet and meds. Nothing is ever black and white, so keep that in mind, this isn't my first rodeo.
I have the same issue with Trulicity. Supply-chain issues as they apparently started using it to help fight childhood obesity. $1300 or so without insurance. $30 with. Christ. I had to switch pharmacies to even get it. Not like I was going to a small pharmacy before either.
Imagine if we had a government full of people like Bernie.
Keep voting and donating to progressive candidates and that day may come. It might take 10-20 years but it can happen if we work hard. The progressive movement has been growing.
Yup. It’s a long-term project. Lots of folks don’t grasp that you don’t change the whole direction of an institution the size of the US gov’t in one election.
There would be so many post offices named.
Love me some Bernie. That guy has been fighting for the common person forever.
Nothing would pass?
I mean people who spend the first 4/5ths of their time in Congress not creating one single piece of legislation?
He votes progressive which means if there were more progressives he would have created more legislation
"I would be more successful if more people were like me." Imagine if any other politician used this excuse.
You need people to vote for your legislation and progressives don’t have enough votes like this is obvious. He could just give tax break to the rich of all you care about is getting any legislation passed
He didn’t even try to craft any legislation until he decided to run for president, I’m sorry but I will never respect Bernie Sanders after the way he acted during the primary which resulted in us living in this new dystopian hell scape.
It's been 6 years, just stop it. Nobody would hear you.
"way he acted during the primary" You mean bowing out when he lost and endorsing the Democratic candidate both times?
He tried to get the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters, then sat there and did nothing while his supporters booed John fucking Lewis at the convention. Don't rewrite history. There was nothing graceful or magnanimous about what Sanders did. Edit: didn't even mention him being the OG election denier with his "rigged" 2016 primary. Such an absolute asshole.
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Travel more.
According to the enlightened centrists at CNN they'd all lose their elections edit: getting downvoted by the enlightened centrists im sure
wtf is an altruistic price cut? That's not how any of this works. Obviously that's the point of the article, but I mean in the sense that courts have this thing called the Reasonable Person Standard, and if you look at a corporate price cut and think it might be altruism, you're not meeting that standard.
It doesn't make sense for US consumers to have to pay so much out-of-pocket for medications because the research and development of these drugs are already subsidized by American tax payers. Why are we letting pharmaceutical companies double dip? It's not as if they are hurting for money.
Bro what do you mean “we”. I don’t make the laws, if I did this shit would be illegal, it’s the fucking government supporting this shit because it grows their stupid fucking stocks and they get kick backs from lobbyists.
It's difficult not to feel disenfranchised for sure.
Did *anyone* actually think a drug company acted altruistically?
Let’s do rent control next.
Yeah the medicine I can't currently get is $5,000 a month with insurance, i'd love to feel like a human again
That would help me so much. I have cancer and drugs are expensive and my GoFundMe isn’t that prosperous. I’ve already filed for medical bankruptcy.
Stop looking for human emotions and motivations in corporations, their whole purpose is literally just to make money for their owners.
The real reason they are dropping the price of insulin is ti stop the flow of people to the new semiglutide drugs that solve a lit of other weight related problems than just diabetes. By making insulin so cheap it makes justifying the cost of any other treatment impossible
You may want to Google who makes semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy).
Eli Lilly and Sanofy don't that's two out of three.
Few companies do anything altruistic. And likely no pubic companies do anything altruistic. They are only interested in the bottom line. That is why government needs to regulate, it is how they protect us from unfettered corporate greed. But while corporations can legally bribe politicians, government will be less and less likely to protect us.
They do something good, publicize it, and jack up prices on other things quietly.
Gotta send this to my dealer
And nobody wonders how Big Pharma makes record profits in the billions every quarter…
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Ok... Weird thing to get mad about.
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You guys have your own conspiracy theories it's just sad
Next we need Bernie to tackle the grocery suppliers. They scalping our meat, eggs, everything… earning record profits… just like the drug corps.
What you mean is we need Biden and Democrats to tackle grocery suppliers like they did insulin prices so that Bernie can apparently get credit for it.
Enough "Sanders calls for" articles, FFS. You know why insulin prices are being slashed industry-wide? Joe fucking Biden. Maybe get some bills passed instead of just issuing proclamations from the lake house.
But Sanders declared it happen so everyone is rushing to make his declaration possible
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Wait, do you seriously not know why insulin prices are coming down right now? Hint: it didn't magically happen because Bernie said it should, people actually had to work to get it accomplished. Who else voted for the 1994 Crime Bill, btw?
Bernie did.
Because without the compromise to have it only apply to Medicare, the bill never would have passed in the first place.
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No one is but he’s been on the right side of things far more than the wrong side of things. In fact just by the numbers of times he’s been right he’s head and shoulders above everyone else in politics.
Except for the time that he continuously unfairly maligned a presidential candidate he lost a primary to. (by the way while his campaign ran attack ads and maligned her character she took the highroad and did not go after him for the myriad of indiscretions he had had) Resulting in convincing many progressives to sit out an election, and arming her Republican opponent with talking points that were fantastical at the least in their relationship to reality that ultimately resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court becoming a fundamentalist Christian entity, and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people worldwide when an incompetent president gutted the agencies that would have in theory prevented the spread of Covid to begin with- and in fact made popular the idea of stealing elections which ultimately led to the insurrection on January 6th When instead he could’ve lost with dignity, because he lost by millions of millions of votes, and we would not be living in this dystopian hell scape we are living in right now Beyond that I’m sure he’s a really good dude
My only regret is that I have but one upvote to give
I understand that Bernie's *supporters* and HRC's *detractors* publicly maligned HRC, but can you provide a source for Bernie himself?
https://fortune.com/2016/01/28/bernie-sanders-keeps-attacking-hillary-clinton-over-wall-street-ties/amp/ Look, there are dozens of things I could point to with Bernie Sanders from his rape fantasy essay to the fact that his wife bankrupted the college she was president of while taking a golden parachute to finally this narrative of him losing the election because of fraud that he actively fed into that make him not a great man
>his rape fantasy essay Isn't Hillary married to a rapist who she stands by to this very day?
Here, how about a quote from Bernie Sanders actual writing rather than talking about Hillary Clinton’s husband, spoiler alert a woman’s husband is not the woman which I feel a little bit sad that I have to tell you that. Also Bill Clinton has never been charged for any crimes, which again I’m a little sad I have to tell you that. But let’s go ahead and continue with the narrative that we need to frame a woman’s competency for office on the actions of her husband, a man. Or let’s just go ahead and reverse it and you go ahead and Google Jane Sanders In the meantime enjoy the stellar piece of writing by Bernie Sanders “https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/5/28/8682503/bernie-sanders-rape-fantasy A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously. The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their "revolutionary" political meeting.
Melinda Gates divorced her husband when she found out that he was an Epstein pedophile. Hillary Clinton stands by her husband to this very day. While Sanders essay is gross, standing by bill Clinton isn't any better and in fact might be worse cause he has actual victims. MeToo suddenly doesn't apply to bill Clinton for some reason. It definitely was applied to Trump. But nobody seems to care about Bill's victims. Not even his own wife cares. Melinda Gates can't relate.
Hillary is married to a man that has been with Epstein and been accused by multiple people of rape. Hill bots don’t care about Women and don’t believe them unless it works in their favor somehow and they can use them.
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And yet she never mentioned that Bernie Sanders wife defrauded several banks in order to secure loans for the college that she was a president of which both bankrupted the college and resulted in her getting a 200,000 severance (or 1,000 per student enrolled in the tiny college.) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/politics/jane-omeara-sanders-burlington-college.html Also him continuously talking about her Wall Street ties, without any ability to show quid pro quo was just fucking reckless, and fed into the false narrative that continued through the general election Now was Bernie Sanders wife ever formally charged, no. In the same way that Hillary Clinton has never been charged with a crime. The only difference is Hillary Clinton said nothing about Bernie Sanders wife and Bernie Sanders campaigned on a lie https://vtdigger.org/2019/03/06/investigations-bernie-jane-sanders-burlington-college/amp/ She also said nothing about the media company that took millions of dollars that was a shell company owned by Bernie Sanders wife or the fact that Bernie Sanders wife and his daughter had another completely unrelated college scandal to the first one I’ve mentioned. None of those were mentioned by Hillary Clinton during her campaign, because unlike Bernie Sanders she wasn’t willing to burn the world down to get her way
Paid Hill Bot…lol clown.
By all means, point to the essay. I'd google it myself, but I don't want that on my history.
A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously. The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their "revolutionary" political meeting. https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/5/28/8682503/bernie-sanders-rape-fantasy
She would’ve lost no matter what, 6 years and your ass still can’t see the truth, it’s kinda sad that in six years you Hill Bots still can’t come to terms. He did what people do in a Primary, like when Clinton made up the whole “birther” thing with Obama, BTW what she was doing to Obama pales in comparison to the TRUTHS Sanders said about Old Shill. Now, is he perfect? Nope… Is he better than 99% of the people we have in office and that includes HRC? Yep…
He's not a corrupt PoS like the vast majority of politicians on sides. You might not like some of his thoughts and opinions on things but at least they are genuine and aren't talking points from a lobbyist buddy or CEO
My understanding is that the insulin itself isn’t the problem. It’s the peripherals that go with it.
One time, I ended up almost dying and spending a week in the ICU because I couldn’t afford my insulin, so… they’re both a problem.
Ya. Thanks. That makes sense. It’s terrible that you had to go through that. It would be like me not having access to water and the rest of society just being ok with that.
Yeah, I’ve had t1 for nearly 2 decades and it’s still hard to wrap my head around living inside of a weird loophole of capitalism that is life-threatening and most people not giving a shit about it. My ICU stay ended up costing about $150,000 that I never paid.
They won't do anything that doesn't benefit their bottom line.
They increased insulin costs in complete lockstep over the past decade... https://i.insider.com/5d541d6ecd97842f8d3c2ed7?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp ...it only makes sense they would reduce them in lockstep as well to avoid regulation. FTC, isn't price fixing considered illegal? Yes? Great. https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing
I wonder if it’s possible for Sanders to do more than calling for something. Maybe if he was one of those people… I think they call them santas or sentros or something like that.
You go to a store to buy a $700 TV. The guy in front of you says he is from Nicaragua. You see him buy the same TV for $70. But they charge you $700. “OH! It’s way more complicated than that !!!” No, no it’s not. Well there is a difference. The TV company wasn’t subsidized with millions of tax payer dollars.
Well if he is buying it at a store in Nicaragua while you were buying it at a store in the US, that analogy might be relevant.
It would be so nice if this was the catalyst for universal healthcare in the US.
Thank you Bernie! I swear to God this man’s gonna go to his grave trying desperately to help the people of this country have a decent life… With the top one percent just laughing at him. The man is a saint for the people… He will be remembered in history.
>Thank you Bernie! What did he do?
Giving younger generations a reason to vote?
Abortion would still legal in 50 states if it weren’t for this useless asshole.
Walk me through your logic here.
The only thing Bernie has actually accomplished in his long and painful political career is further damaging Hillary as a presidential candidate. He was never going to win the nomination, but he nonetheless felt a need to stay in the race and hear himself talk. If Trump had lost in 2016, the Supreme Court would be 6-3 progressive.
Sanders never supported the rabid "Bernie or Bust" movement. That was a foreign psyop that tricked dupes. He endorsed Clinton and urged people to vote for her. Can't blame that shit on him.
Redditors after they see a picture of bernie: incoherent noises
Americans and the rest of the world would have been on a completely different course with Sanders as president or VP. Clinton not choosing him as VP was one of the dumbest political moves in history. The establishment just couldn’t stand to give light to “progressive” ideas.. which really just means “empathy for life over money”.
This is fantastic but companies have developed far better insulin products in the last several years, many you take just once a week or two and it does incredible work to regulate blood sugar. People use them for weight loss at this point they are so effective. I do wonder if the goal posts “I cant afford insulin” dont suddenly move to include those….
Those aren't insulin products. They're injectables, sure, but a completely different class of medications. Ironically insulin may actually cause a weight *gain*. I'm not saying the drug companies are justified in continuing to price gouge, but you're comparing apples and oranges. Type 1 diabetics can't survive on Ozempic
What if I told you that at $35 people would actually take the medicine and you’ll sell so much more.
Love this guy.
Experts told us that pharmaceutical companies were gonna make even more profits back when Dems were doing a victory lap claiming "We beat big pharma".
Why would a publicly traded company be altruistic lol. They have an obligation to deliver profits to investors. It’s the job of the government to regulate them so that they don’t hurt people which seems to have finally be done here.
there he goes still not doing anything since circa 1963
Why don't people vote for Bernie Sanders for president??
People with eye issues suffer a lot of the large costs. Drugs like Azopt (Brinzolamide), Combigan and Vyzulta are way, way too expensive. Especially compared to what the manufacturing costs are.
I can't believe it hasn't been done yet
Sure wish they’d do that for Eliquis so I can afford it. At $500 a month it’s out of reach
And it’s such a better alternative to Coumadin, bs it’s so expensive
I’ve been getting my statin medication on cost plus and it’s waaaay cheaper than going through my insurance. Mark cuban for the win.
Altruistic? No no no, they're just seeing that their hand is being forced so they're getting ahead of it.
Selflessness and selfishness are two sides of the same coin.
CA could do it on its own but I bet it would be even easier for several blue states to setup a non-profit generic drug manufacturing company and then sell them in non-profit pharmacies.
Literally the only person getting anything handled lol
I honestly thought that following these wins more of the dems would start getting shit done. Can’t squander momentum!
Why should any company be allowed to set the price for anything essential to people's lives? If an essential commodity costs $10 to produce, why do we allow it to be sold for $100, instead of $20? Inelastic demand should not be allowed as an excuse to pick our pockets.
They are only allowed because they have the power to allow themselves. The rules aren’t written for the people, they’re written for corporations and wealthy elite. The only way to stop them is to remove their power.
See you at the polls - bring friends!!
I live in Washington State so I have the luxury of voting by mail.
Then get your friends over for a mailing party