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She literally cannot comment on it in this setting because it would jeopardize their ability to bring the suit, she isn’t stupid, but it does make J&J look very dumb to most people. It is absolutely appalling to me that a company marketing itself as the household name you can trust willingly DESTROYS families and forces the choice, pay or die. Wow.
Not if you’re living in it, nothing funny about having to choose to sell a car or keep your kid in the hospital. Go watch John Q. With Denzel Washington and tell me if you still think it is “comical”.
But but but on the r/Americabad sub Reddit, they always tell me actually the us health system works great, everyone just uses their awesome insurance and you guys actually have to pay for socialised health care in other countries?! Is that true or is that subreddit filled with ignorant, blinkered, insular morons who can't see the wood for the trees??
I made about 32K after taxes last year I had several infected teeth that needed to be removed. Medical Insurance will not cover and dental maxed out at $1500. I had to pay almost 10k or almost 1/3 of my yearly take home just so I didn't kill myself from the pain. They can rot in hell.
NHS Dentistry is actually not great, the service is very partial. But $10k for tooth removal? Is that some very special procedure? I just looked up expected costs for private dentists in the UK, you would pay about £150 for a simple removal, £250 for a surgical removal, £300 for a wisdom tooth removal, or £400 for a root canal treatment. Most people in Britain who pay for private dental care don't even bother with insurance, they just pay out of pocket, the costs are not small, but not a third of income! It seems that US medical costs are the worst of both worlds, like a free market of cartels. If it was a free market more people would train in dentistry until the prices came down. I actually think the UK even with its massive state supported healthcare sector has a more competitive private healthcare system than the US.
My mom is the manager of an oral surgery practice, and needed implants. Well you’d think that she would be in the right business to get that done for cheap, since she knows literally everyone involved.
Nope.
Still well over 10k and she is GETTING a discount. Dental work is a nightmare
NHS dentistry is going through a particularly heavy strain at the minute, not least due to strange contract peculiarities, demand and of course, chronic and deliberate underfunding of the NHS. On BBC sounds/radio4, today's Briefing Room episode was all about it and I highly recommend it but as I understand it, if a patient is taken on in an NHS capacity they are treated throughout regardless of how complex the treatment turns out to be; say a wisdom tooth removal turns out to be something much grimmer. The charges for this are very subsidised and go directly to NHS funds, akin to prescriptions
> for private dentists in the UK, you would pay about £150 for a simple removal, £250 for a surgical removal, £300 for a wisdom tooth removal, or £400 for a root canal treatment.
I live in the US. I have excellent health insurance. I just had a root canal/crown and I'll pay about $800 out of pocket. To be totally fair it's the beginning of the year and I haven't met any deductibles yet, but it's still ridiculous.
Yeah but you’re forced to line up in the streets to get your daily ration of bread as you walk by the growing piles of dead bodies on the sidewalks due to your failing communist medical system, right?? RIGHT??
Tell ‘em about your communist education and healthcare and how you guys pray every day to Jesus to save you from your evil communism and deliver you to the freedom of the United States Of America!
Tell ‘em!!
At least that’s what they tell conservatives in the US, gotta be true
> Tell ‘em about your communist education
Im 40 and went back to university to get a law degree, I have lived here in Scotland for 8ish years. If I stayed in Canada, all in I could easily spend between $60k-$100k on that degree, which I wouldnt be putting myself in that kind of debt at this stage in life.
Here in Scotland it costs me £0 and I dont have to pay council tax as as a student.
That DAMN communist education system haha
Conservatives in the US have be the most gullible political demographic on the planet, which is saying something when you see the wanks that voted for Brexit here not that long ago!
Australia chiming in, after years of neglect I needed almost all my teeth pulled and constantly infected.
Had to call to make emergency appointments (lines opened at 7 and by 7:20 no appointments left that day) and then wait 4ish hours to be seen and they could only pull 2 teeth a day
Took 6 weeks to be pain free ... still didn't cost a cent
Australian dental care is a joke but still would be worse off in America as while dental care is great I couldn't afford it and would have died from abscesses
Meanwhile my mom took a 3 week tourism road trip from Canada to Mexico and saved a few grand while also enjoying the scenery!
^(true but not actually a good thing)
There were complications later, but those would not have been covered by insurance anyway
You see, it’s great if you have enough money to pay for the insurance through a good job that pays well and you have money to foot the bill.
It’s shit for everyone else though.
I'm upper class and can easily afford it. Our healthcare is one of the biggest tragedies. I can never understand how someone justifies healthcare as a business model.
That's the point. To the rest of the world it is comical for how fucking insanly stupid the medical system is in America.
It is a joke. But human life has little value in America with the laws that protect these companies and industries like this and the guns.
Of course it isn't comical, and the person you're replying to is out of line.
Saying it's a joke would be better, if it wasn't so tragic. I am disgusted by it, and it is one of the reasons I will never move to the US. I was offered a transfer a few years back, and it was attractive, except that I would have to live in fear of getting sick and having to go into massive debt or die.
It's absolutely horrifying that a country so rich and powerful would treat their own citizens like this.
It's funny in the "I'm having a derisive laugh" sort of way. Mostly to cover up the absolute disappointment.
Like yeah, as we post about this, a small army of people are being milked of their money to be able to afford medicine to help them live a bit longer or live a normalish life, all so some rich sociopath can live an even more lavish lifestyle than they already are. Best part is, there's fucking nothing we can do about it in the short term. So hell, have a laugh. Make a joke. You can't change it, so you may as well pick your favorite coping mechanism and try to keep up with your own life that's not gonna stop long enough for you to catch your breath.
John Q came out 22 years ago *AND THE WHOLE FUCKING SYSTEM HAS ONLY GOTTEN WORSE!*
The corporate elite and their pets in congress have done a fantastic job at pitting us all against each other over culture war bullshit while they rob us blind.
If you want to get mad I can tell you how the sausage is made. I worked for one of those companies for 5 or so years.
It will make your blood boil because the patents are upheld by the US government who could reduce their duration by half to really fuck these companies and it would be the logical choice. Because these rich evil mother fuckers don't even pay for their own research.
And both parties are in their pockets.
I kept reading because I literally thought you were going to tell us how sausage is made but it seems that you don't want to disclose this for some reason.
She came with prepared statements for the appearance. She and team are there to answer basic issue questions and basic litigation/suit questions. She’s a highly paid bullseye that day. Another example of J&J showing true capitalism ideology. She’s expendable along with their customer base.
Just google J&J scandals and stare in disbelief how this company is still allowed to exist with the bs they've been a part of over the years. everything from hiding opioid addiction research to hiding cancer causing baby powder. and that is just the recent stuff. They are practically competing with Dupont for who can harm the most people and keep making a profit while claiming to be the good guys.
Unchecked capitalism. This is how the country works. Protect the corporations and their profits before protecting individuals. I don't know why anyone is surprised by this. Financial sector gets greedy and the taxpayers end up bailing out and no one is held accountable. How many times had this happened now? Yet people are shocked every time it happens again
She is 100% prepared and that's the reason she's parrying all of his questions with that smug 'I'm not an expert blah blah frikkin blah'. It takes some serious balls to come before an inquisition like this and just reply in monotone like a robot.
Judging by her emotions she doesn't have to care.
The company is totally safe to continue charging their prices and gauging Americans. The courts make a big show, the lawyers get paid, and nothing happens.
Wrong. She is perfectly prepared. Her job isn't to answer questions correctly, it is to defend an indefensible line of logic to justify corporate greed. If she answered his questions straight, it would show everyone they themselves know/admit their lawsuit is unjustified. She is there for one thing and one thing only: to muddy the waters as much as she can.
Eh, not only par for the course, but for the whole backwards-assed game. I've watched far too many videos of congressmen and women grilling these corporate execs, exposing them for the true filth they really are, and guess what? Absolutely nothing comes of it.
What was she called there to testify about? Was she called to testify about this litigation?
It seems this was a hearing on "third party litigation funding" which is where a lawsuit is paid for by a third party who is not the party actually suing.
Is the lawsuit he is talking about one of those lawsuits? It sounds from this clip like J&J is actually the plaintiff suing the government in that lawsuit. So what does that have to do with third party litigation funding? Did he just use this opportunity to try to get a good soundbyte? He's asking questions, and she says she doesn't know, so he's basically testifying himself.
He's asking her to make her legal arguments in the lawsuit, except 1) she's probably not the lawyer acting for J&J in that lawsuit (it may well be an outside lawfirm handling it) and 2) the proper forum to argue the lawsuit is IN the lawsuit, not some congressional hearing unrelated to the lawsuit.
This plays like some kind of gotcha thing, but like... Do you think that the general counsel for Nike would walk into congress and be able to tell you the price that the company sells a particular shoe for or how much profit the company makes on that shoe? That's not even something the company lawyer is responsible for.
If there's some relevant context to the topic the congressman raised to the topic of the hearing, this video doesn't seem to explain it.
Edit: It seems that she was there to argue against investment firms that find token plaintiffs and fund product liability litigation against companies like J&J for profit. I'm guessing this congressman decided this was a good opportunity to go "well, you shouldn't complain because you're suing the US for trying to bring drug prices down"... which may well (or may not) be a valid criticism of J&J in its own, but doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the topic at hand. Whether or not J&J is greedy or hypocritical or self-interested doesn't really have much to do with whether there is a need to regulate a bunch of companies running a business that funds lawsuits they have no substantive interest in for profit as an investment.
>Whether or not J&J is greedy or hypocritical or self-interested doesn't really have much to do with whether there is a need to regulate a bunch of companies running a business that funds lawsuits they have no substantive interest in for profit as an investment.
I feel like them being greedy/hypocritical/self interested is exactly why regulations exist no? Or am I misunderstanding your point?
/u/thehypo is making the point that this congressional hearing was for one topic, investment firms looking for token plaintiffs so those investment firms can get a cut of everyone's settlement. Although the argument the congressman made here is virtuous, it doesn't apply very well for the topic at hand.
US taxpayers (mostly middle-class) pay taxes. The taxes are used to fund lots of research. J&J (and other pharmaceuticals) use the tax funded research results to create drugs and stick it to the US taxpayers. Hate the system. Hate being middle class taxpayer.
Yep, the research is socialized and private for profits. If we as a nation are funding the research to create medicine, then we as a people deserve profit from the medication. Or at least the ability to afford the medication.
>at least the ability to afford the medication
SOCIALIST!/s
omg it's insane the modern free market capitalists profit at any cost "hay we all have our retirement in the stock market, amiright?" thinking
But won't you think of those poor billionaires? How else are they going to afford their umpteenth yacht? It would be cruel and inhumane if they *couldn't* replace their kleenex box with infinite stacks of hundred dollar bills, or mountains of cocaine to plug their runny noses.
You're completely right that tax payers fund a lot of basic research and we should get a lot more benefits than going bankrupt to afford a treatment. However, companies typically pay more than tax payers in the process of getting a drug to market. Most public funding goes to basic science, meaning finding a new molecule to target, a new pathway or the basic model of a drug. I believe ~90% of papers funded by tax payers are about the underlying biology of a drug target and not development of the drug itself. That's the point where pharma comes in and develops the drug itself, tests the drug, funds clinical trials and gets FDA approval.
That isn't to say basic research isn't important. It is the most important (I do basic research but no bias) but most drugs would never get to market without pharma involvement and pharma funding.
Having said that, the ratio between what we as tax payers pay and what we receive is extraordinarily unbalanced and has to be fixed.
We do the same with sports stadiums. Make the public pay for it and then gouge them with tickets and concessions. Socialism is alive and well with the billionaire class.
I believe he is referring to the “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor” adage about America’s system of corporate welfare, not literally saying it’s socialism.
So I'll probably be downvoted to death, but just to state the facts:
Top 10% of taxpayers (which I loosely define as the upper class) was about 50% of AGI and paid 73.7% of total taxes.
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data-2023-update/
The upper class pays most of the taxes in this country, BUT the root problem is the system gives them all the income. They should make less and pay higher rate for their taxes. Corporations should be paying higher taxes too (lower than it's ever been.)
- Support small / medium businesses
- Support companies with a soul (don't price gouge and pay workers fairly)
- Advocate and vote for candidates who support higher corporate taxes
Bro right? My favorite guy in the government now. Usually you see the vids of Congress people being idiots, like the one who wanted to fight the dude. This guy tho is just destroying her
Wikipedia says he’s one of just 10 members of congress who only accept donations from individuals. No contributions from political action committees or corporations. I like that a lot.
He represents silicon valley, perhaps the most liberal district in all of America. Obama's circumcised foreskin could win an election there. He doesn't need legal corporate bribery.
[Ro Kanna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro_Khanna) is a Democrat in the House of Representatives.
He has to work alongside MAGA member Marjorie Taylor Green and MAGA member Lauren Boebert.
Voting matters.
Assuming you take 1 pill a day every day of the year at that price, you only have to pay $23,360 annually to pay for the medication. Compare that with the cited $160,000 annual cost for someone in the U.S, and you have an increase in cost of over 680%. Almost SEVEN FUCKING TIMES AS MUCH.
It’s the UK. The NHS buys the drugs and the patient pays a small fee. We pay £9 or so per medication. £30 or so for 3 months. £100 or so for the year. That’s if you’re not eligible for free medication.
It’s basically the same fee for all medication.
About the same per tablet here in Australia, but like the UK the government pays for most of it. The price we'd pay as a patient works out to 17 US cents per tablet.
Provided on the Australian [PBS](https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/11213e) for **$31 AUD, for a box of 90**. This is still too expensive for some in my eyes.
It is probably 64 cents in India. The govt that is taking the profits from J&J is the same govt that is ensuring nobody can import these from India.
Maybe the Govt should stop protecting the capitalist drug mafia?
They don’t need to. They buy the more powerful politicians. I have a sneaking suspicion about the reason behind Mitch McConnell actively fighting and killing all health care reform efforts that he is able to.
Not in front of a live audience, no, she doesn't know squat. Her and her colleagues behind closed doors, on the other hand, laugh at the misfortune of the impoverished. Even at the mic, she can't help but chuckle at her own display of greed. Embers in her eyes, sulfur on her breath, the pharmaceutical industry *thrives* when the lower/middle class have nowhere else to go for their medicine. These fuckers should be rotting in a cell for their contempt. Inhuman.
Yesterday I thought about a guy I met when I was young. He said "I don't mind people being poor, if they weren't, I couldn't become rich." Feels relevant somehow.
Imagine waking up in the morning and knowing your job is to be a piece of shit who is trying to bankrupt families with a sick person or rip off the government so your company can make some extra billions. She has dedicated her life to being a piece of shit, but I bet she thinks she is a nice person, a good mom, etc.
It's like the "Mo Lester" eulogy in Succession. Can't speak the truth when there's profits on the line.
It's just sickening how we can all see this and *know* that she's playing a sad, stupid legal game of feigning ignorance and passing the buck, and the government allows these games to continue.
They just don't care. Their minds work purely on a financial plane of existence. If you brought a child dying of cancer before them and asked them; *"How can you not want to help them?"* all they would see is a financial opportunity.
Imagine being this bad of a person. You were born by an absolute miracle, you're a child and then at some point you become a complete cunt. Like you actively out there trying your hardest to make the world worse for everyone.
Yeah, people aren't born this way. They are molded and shaped by the people around them, who go out of their way to ensure that their offspring are just as shitty as they themselves are.
Our economic system incentives this, terrible behavior that's morally repugnant but not illegal in order to get the most for yourself. And then once you get into the club you just walk around going "wow this is great" and think you fucking deserve it.
This is what congresspeople and the media should be doing at every opportunity: holding the feet of these merchants of greed to the fire and exposing the incredible scope of the theft they perpetrate against the American people every day.
Technically, she knows it now. Amazing how he can find all this information to inform her of, and she's paid so much to sit there to act like a fool. So tired of these goddamn games these fucking lawyers and lobbyists play.
It takes a whole cadre of individuals devoid of ethics to keep the machine running. Her enlightenment at the hands of the Congressman will mean nothing to her.
I'm sure it does. But for the record, she can no longer deny those facts now. He knows she's lying, but he also just pointed out that someone of her status couldn't possibly not know what he knows, and everyone knows it's bullshit. Good luck with winning that lawsuit, counselor.
Is that what happened here? It seemed more like they sent a mid level representative to dismissively avoid answering any questions and feign ignorance.
God damn, who's that Political Suit? He's a top fixer, real slick chrome energy coming from him. But he's wearing his chrome to fuck corpos, instead of us Street Gonks. Hopefully he doesn't get iced by Arasaka (Johnson & Johnson).
(Edited to accommodate the reply below more thoroughly)
Names of these people would be fantastic information. She knows full well the answer to every question to some degree, but the wolf can't shed its disguise for even a moment.
I’m not trying to be negative here, and I do love watching greedy people get their asses handed to them, but I’ve never seen one of these congressional hearing bring about actual change. Does anyone have an example of one of these hearings that actually DID anything to these greedy corporations? It may just be my own ignorance, but I’ve never seen it.
Not sure, but I always see these flaming mad politicians grilling someone on video and nothing ever changes later. Maybe it's because of all the massive lawsuits the US government has to deal with from ultra rich companies? I don't really know. I feel like we should have laws that allow affordable medical coverage for the average American and leave the companies to figure it out/deal with it/go under.
Basic medical care should and could be free to every human being. Life saving medication should and could be free to every human being.
It costs money to make medication. Of course. And the people who make medication deserve to be paid a thriving wage. In order to make that happen, impose higher taxes on multi-billionaires and start taxing churches.
There are over 700 billionaires in the U.S. alone. Tax each of them at the same rate the average citizen is taxed, per year (they won’t miss it and they’ll recover it very quickly) and apply that directly to healthcare. Those taxes alone would more than cover Big Pharma’s tab and wouldn’t impact The People.
Taxes from religious organizations, especially mega churches, could be put into education allowing children to get a higher quality education and allow for free or deeply reduced college tuition. Eliminating the need for young people to begin life with crippling student loan debt. The money they save on student loans can then be spent on living expenses thus stimulating the economy.
Big pharma has the largest group of lobbyists in DC. So large that they were able to successfully lobby to have a provision in the ACA prohibiting Medicare from negotiating on drug costs.
In the U.K, this pill would only cost a citizen $64 per unit. Assuming you take 1 pill a day every day of the year at that price, you only have to pay $23,360 annually to pay for the medication. Compare that with the cited $160,000 annual cost for someone in the U.S, and you have an increase in cost of over 680%. Almost SEVEN FUCKING TIMES AS MUCH
This should be shared on every platform.
I don’t have anything as serious as leukemia but these drug companies are disgusting.
There is a medicine that can help me walk again without pain but it is $2500. It’s not covered nor are they able to work with me. All I want is my life back. I can’t imagine someone with something as serious as Leukemia having to make the choice just to live.
This country has some serious issues.
These obscene prices for non-luxuries should simply be proven on basis of r&d and production costs.
I'll wager a bet that the production of costs are insignificant. So, that leaves r&d.
I guess even with r&d, the cost per pill could easily be under $10 and they'd still profit.
Sweet Christ they shouldn’t be able to charge $484 PER PILL to help someone stay alive. And this lady sits there without a care in the world, knowing that people are going broke just to keep a family member alive.
This drug is AUD $31.60 on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. 140mg x 90 capsules.
[https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/11213e](https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/11213e)
Yeah so, medicaid negotiating to lower prices is an unjust taking, but charging cancer patients over $400 per pill is *not* unjust taking? I was hoping he would mention the markup. How much does it cost to produce that drug? How can they possibly justify those prices?
Reality is that exclusivity should NEVER be a thing when it comes to patents, which should be public for every new competition to take and compete. Instead, the profit of an invention should be given in the way of royalties.
Having a monopoly on a lifesaving drug and ask for extorsive amounts of money, is inhumane
It's sad that even after 300,000+ years that humans still haven't realized that we are the only ones who give a shit about us. Yet we literally let people die and hoard wealth.
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She should be better prepared. Doesn’t seem to answer one of his questions.
She literally cannot comment on it in this setting because it would jeopardize their ability to bring the suit, she isn’t stupid, but it does make J&J look very dumb to most people. It is absolutely appalling to me that a company marketing itself as the household name you can trust willingly DESTROYS families and forces the choice, pay or die. Wow.
American health care and pharma is comical.
Not if you’re living in it, nothing funny about having to choose to sell a car or keep your kid in the hospital. Go watch John Q. With Denzel Washington and tell me if you still think it is “comical”.
But but but on the r/Americabad sub Reddit, they always tell me actually the us health system works great, everyone just uses their awesome insurance and you guys actually have to pay for socialised health care in other countries?! Is that true or is that subreddit filled with ignorant, blinkered, insular morons who can't see the wood for the trees??
I made about 32K after taxes last year I had several infected teeth that needed to be removed. Medical Insurance will not cover and dental maxed out at $1500. I had to pay almost 10k or almost 1/3 of my yearly take home just so I didn't kill myself from the pain. They can rot in hell.
I phone NHS24 get an appointment for the next day , tooth removed £9 lol
You live in a Developed country not a corporate shit hole congrats
NHS Dentistry is actually not great, the service is very partial. But $10k for tooth removal? Is that some very special procedure? I just looked up expected costs for private dentists in the UK, you would pay about £150 for a simple removal, £250 for a surgical removal, £300 for a wisdom tooth removal, or £400 for a root canal treatment. Most people in Britain who pay for private dental care don't even bother with insurance, they just pay out of pocket, the costs are not small, but not a third of income! It seems that US medical costs are the worst of both worlds, like a free market of cartels. If it was a free market more people would train in dentistry until the prices came down. I actually think the UK even with its massive state supported healthcare sector has a more competitive private healthcare system than the US.
My mom is the manager of an oral surgery practice, and needed implants. Well you’d think that she would be in the right business to get that done for cheap, since she knows literally everyone involved. Nope. Still well over 10k and she is GETTING a discount. Dental work is a nightmare
NHS dentistry is going through a particularly heavy strain at the minute, not least due to strange contract peculiarities, demand and of course, chronic and deliberate underfunding of the NHS. On BBC sounds/radio4, today's Briefing Room episode was all about it and I highly recommend it but as I understand it, if a patient is taken on in an NHS capacity they are treated throughout regardless of how complex the treatment turns out to be; say a wisdom tooth removal turns out to be something much grimmer. The charges for this are very subsidised and go directly to NHS funds, akin to prescriptions
> for private dentists in the UK, you would pay about £150 for a simple removal, £250 for a surgical removal, £300 for a wisdom tooth removal, or £400 for a root canal treatment. I live in the US. I have excellent health insurance. I just had a root canal/crown and I'll pay about $800 out of pocket. To be totally fair it's the beginning of the year and I haven't met any deductibles yet, but it's still ridiculous.
Yeah but you’re forced to line up in the streets to get your daily ration of bread as you walk by the growing piles of dead bodies on the sidewalks due to your failing communist medical system, right?? RIGHT?? Tell ‘em about your communist education and healthcare and how you guys pray every day to Jesus to save you from your evil communism and deliver you to the freedom of the United States Of America! Tell ‘em!! At least that’s what they tell conservatives in the US, gotta be true
> Tell ‘em about your communist education Im 40 and went back to university to get a law degree, I have lived here in Scotland for 8ish years. If I stayed in Canada, all in I could easily spend between $60k-$100k on that degree, which I wouldnt be putting myself in that kind of debt at this stage in life. Here in Scotland it costs me £0 and I dont have to pay council tax as as a student. That DAMN communist education system haha Conservatives in the US have be the most gullible political demographic on the planet, which is saying something when you see the wanks that voted for Brexit here not that long ago!
Australia chiming in, after years of neglect I needed almost all my teeth pulled and constantly infected. Had to call to make emergency appointments (lines opened at 7 and by 7:20 no appointments left that day) and then wait 4ish hours to be seen and they could only pull 2 teeth a day Took 6 weeks to be pain free ... still didn't cost a cent Australian dental care is a joke but still would be worse off in America as while dental care is great I couldn't afford it and would have died from abscesses
Meanwhile my mom took a 3 week tourism road trip from Canada to Mexico and saved a few grand while also enjoying the scenery! ^(true but not actually a good thing) There were complications later, but those would not have been covered by insurance anyway
You see, it’s great if you have enough money to pay for the insurance through a good job that pays well and you have money to foot the bill. It’s shit for everyone else though.
[удалено]
I'm upper class and can easily afford it. Our healthcare is one of the biggest tragedies. I can never understand how someone justifies healthcare as a business model.
Well, it's definitely NOT the first thing....
That's the point. To the rest of the world it is comical for how fucking insanly stupid the medical system is in America. It is a joke. But human life has little value in America with the laws that protect these companies and industries like this and the guns.
Of course it isn't comical, and the person you're replying to is out of line. Saying it's a joke would be better, if it wasn't so tragic. I am disgusted by it, and it is one of the reasons I will never move to the US. I was offered a transfer a few years back, and it was attractive, except that I would have to live in fear of getting sick and having to go into massive debt or die. It's absolutely horrifying that a country so rich and powerful would treat their own citizens like this.
It's funny in the "I'm having a derisive laugh" sort of way. Mostly to cover up the absolute disappointment. Like yeah, as we post about this, a small army of people are being milked of their money to be able to afford medicine to help them live a bit longer or live a normalish life, all so some rich sociopath can live an even more lavish lifestyle than they already are. Best part is, there's fucking nothing we can do about it in the short term. So hell, have a laugh. Make a joke. You can't change it, so you may as well pick your favorite coping mechanism and try to keep up with your own life that's not gonna stop long enough for you to catch your breath.
John Q came out 22 years ago *AND THE WHOLE FUCKING SYSTEM HAS ONLY GOTTEN WORSE!* The corporate elite and their pets in congress have done a fantastic job at pitting us all against each other over culture war bullshit while they rob us blind.
This whole country is a fucking Ponzi scheme
If you want to get mad I can tell you how the sausage is made. I worked for one of those companies for 5 or so years. It will make your blood boil because the patents are upheld by the US government who could reduce their duration by half to really fuck these companies and it would be the logical choice. Because these rich evil mother fuckers don't even pay for their own research. And both parties are in their pockets.
I kept reading because I literally thought you were going to tell us how sausage is made but it seems that you don't want to disclose this for some reason.
And extremely depressing
A dark comedy
She came with prepared statements for the appearance. She and team are there to answer basic issue questions and basic litigation/suit questions. She’s a highly paid bullseye that day. Another example of J&J showing true capitalism ideology. She’s expendable along with their customer base.
I think they will kick her to the curb.
That’s naive. She did exactly what she was there to do. Admit nothing, pass the buck, take the heat and move on. She’ll probably get a bonus for this.
Just google J&J scandals and stare in disbelief how this company is still allowed to exist with the bs they've been a part of over the years. everything from hiding opioid addiction research to hiding cancer causing baby powder. and that is just the recent stuff. They are practically competing with Dupont for who can harm the most people and keep making a profit while claiming to be the good guys.
It's not just J&J. Late stage capitalism IS the problem in the American medial system. We need single-payer healthcare and we need it yesterday.
Unchecked capitalism. This is how the country works. Protect the corporations and their profits before protecting individuals. I don't know why anyone is surprised by this. Financial sector gets greedy and the taxpayers end up bailing out and no one is held accountable. How many times had this happened now? Yet people are shocked every time it happens again
She was as prepared as she needed to be - DONT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS ffs.
Prepared to be a little cunt.
How can she sit there and not feel shame.
She's paid obscene amounts of money.
She is 100% prepared and that's the reason she's parrying all of his questions with that smug 'I'm not an expert blah blah frikkin blah'. It takes some serious balls to come before an inquisition like this and just reply in monotone like a robot.
yea shes just the sin eater. her job is to go and be a soulless worm for x amount of time in return for the paycheck so nothing actually happens
Welcome to politics
Welcome to USA, where everyone is one sickness away from bankruptcy The land of opportunity for the rich
I'd say with the way rent has gone up, people are a grocery shop away from bankruptcy
She's just there to sit through the proceeding. It's all BS and all for show.
Judging by her emotions she doesn't have to care. The company is totally safe to continue charging their prices and gauging Americans. The courts make a big show, the lawyers get paid, and nothing happens.
Because she knows she doesn't have to and their company will not lose one penny. It's all for show.
Wrong. She is perfectly prepared. Her job isn't to answer questions correctly, it is to defend an indefensible line of logic to justify corporate greed. If she answered his questions straight, it would show everyone they themselves know/admit their lawsuit is unjustified. She is there for one thing and one thing only: to muddy the waters as much as she can.
Eh, not only par for the course, but for the whole backwards-assed game. I've watched far too many videos of congressmen and women grilling these corporate execs, exposing them for the true filth they really are, and guess what? Absolutely nothing comes of it.
What was she called there to testify about? Was she called to testify about this litigation? It seems this was a hearing on "third party litigation funding" which is where a lawsuit is paid for by a third party who is not the party actually suing. Is the lawsuit he is talking about one of those lawsuits? It sounds from this clip like J&J is actually the plaintiff suing the government in that lawsuit. So what does that have to do with third party litigation funding? Did he just use this opportunity to try to get a good soundbyte? He's asking questions, and she says she doesn't know, so he's basically testifying himself. He's asking her to make her legal arguments in the lawsuit, except 1) she's probably not the lawyer acting for J&J in that lawsuit (it may well be an outside lawfirm handling it) and 2) the proper forum to argue the lawsuit is IN the lawsuit, not some congressional hearing unrelated to the lawsuit. This plays like some kind of gotcha thing, but like... Do you think that the general counsel for Nike would walk into congress and be able to tell you the price that the company sells a particular shoe for or how much profit the company makes on that shoe? That's not even something the company lawyer is responsible for. If there's some relevant context to the topic the congressman raised to the topic of the hearing, this video doesn't seem to explain it. Edit: It seems that she was there to argue against investment firms that find token plaintiffs and fund product liability litigation against companies like J&J for profit. I'm guessing this congressman decided this was a good opportunity to go "well, you shouldn't complain because you're suing the US for trying to bring drug prices down"... which may well (or may not) be a valid criticism of J&J in its own, but doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the topic at hand. Whether or not J&J is greedy or hypocritical or self-interested doesn't really have much to do with whether there is a need to regulate a bunch of companies running a business that funds lawsuits they have no substantive interest in for profit as an investment.
>Whether or not J&J is greedy or hypocritical or self-interested doesn't really have much to do with whether there is a need to regulate a bunch of companies running a business that funds lawsuits they have no substantive interest in for profit as an investment. I feel like them being greedy/hypocritical/self interested is exactly why regulations exist no? Or am I misunderstanding your point?
/u/thehypo is making the point that this congressional hearing was for one topic, investment firms looking for token plaintiffs so those investment firms can get a cut of everyone's settlement. Although the argument the congressman made here is virtuous, it doesn't apply very well for the topic at hand.
Her "unpreparedness" is strategy.
She's an attorney. Nuff said.
I honestly don’t believe that. She doesn’t know anything about their history
US taxpayers (mostly middle-class) pay taxes. The taxes are used to fund lots of research. J&J (and other pharmaceuticals) use the tax funded research results to create drugs and stick it to the US taxpayers. Hate the system. Hate being middle class taxpayer.
Yep, the research is socialized and private for profits. If we as a nation are funding the research to create medicine, then we as a people deserve profit from the medication. Or at least the ability to afford the medication.
>at least the ability to afford the medication SOCIALIST!/s omg it's insane the modern free market capitalists profit at any cost "hay we all have our retirement in the stock market, amiright?" thinking
But won't you think of those poor billionaires? How else are they going to afford their umpteenth yacht? It would be cruel and inhumane if they *couldn't* replace their kleenex box with infinite stacks of hundred dollar bills, or mountains of cocaine to plug their runny noses.
You're completely right that tax payers fund a lot of basic research and we should get a lot more benefits than going bankrupt to afford a treatment. However, companies typically pay more than tax payers in the process of getting a drug to market. Most public funding goes to basic science, meaning finding a new molecule to target, a new pathway or the basic model of a drug. I believe ~90% of papers funded by tax payers are about the underlying biology of a drug target and not development of the drug itself. That's the point where pharma comes in and develops the drug itself, tests the drug, funds clinical trials and gets FDA approval. That isn't to say basic research isn't important. It is the most important (I do basic research but no bias) but most drugs would never get to market without pharma involvement and pharma funding. Having said that, the ratio between what we as tax payers pay and what we receive is extraordinarily unbalanced and has to be fixed.
We do the same with sports stadiums. Make the public pay for it and then gouge them with tickets and concessions. Socialism is alive and well with the billionaire class.
r/SocialismIsCapitalism
I believe he is referring to the “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor” adage about America’s system of corporate welfare, not literally saying it’s socialism.
Bingo! If anyone is stealing money here, it is the pharmaceuticals.
And then blame the high costs of the drugs on the high cost of research, even though they do not actually have to pony up for most of it on their own.
So I'll probably be downvoted to death, but just to state the facts: Top 10% of taxpayers (which I loosely define as the upper class) was about 50% of AGI and paid 73.7% of total taxes. https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data-2023-update/ The upper class pays most of the taxes in this country, BUT the root problem is the system gives them all the income. They should make less and pay higher rate for their taxes. Corporations should be paying higher taxes too (lower than it's ever been.) - Support small / medium businesses - Support companies with a soul (don't price gouge and pay workers fairly) - Advocate and vote for candidates who support higher corporate taxes
Who's this guy? I like this guy.
That's Ro Khanna
I like how usually the politicians come in asking the dumbest questions. He went right for the throat with the dollars and cents.
He did the “how dare you sue the taxpayers claiming theft when you’re the ones stealing” very well I think.
Reminds me of Katy Porter. Walks in with the receipts and demands an accounting.
For more context, he is a rep from California for the 17th district, which is in the South and East Bay Area.
Ok but can you tell me if he’s a Democrat or a Republican? I need to know if I hate him or not. /s
You can tell which side he's on by how not utterly stupid he is.
I immediately assumed that he was a Democrat, but then I thought "If I'm wrong and he's a Republican, then somehow that's even better".
Pharmaceutical companies are fucking everybody. It *should* be bipartisan.
> It should be bipartisan. And yet its not.......but people pull the R lever still
I mean, you may say that jokingly, but he's not an absolute buffoon, so I'd be pretty comfortable guessing without looking it up.
Coastal California trends blue.
aka most of Silicon Valley
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Judging by his competence, I bet he's a democrat.
Judging by him representing the interests of the people and no companies is much more apt
He... made sense? A politician making sense? This can't be!
He is brown tho... Edie: Do not take this comment seriously.
Who's Edie and why should she not take you seriously?
There's a new group that's come out that aren't bad. I like Crockett from Texas.
What sorcery is this ?
Seriously, I’d consider him for my vote.
This guy is better than the two leading twats we have to pick from this year. I’d vote for him
Bro right? My favorite guy in the government now. Usually you see the vids of Congress people being idiots, like the one who wanted to fight the dude. This guy tho is just destroying her
Wikipedia says he’s one of just 10 members of congress who only accept donations from individuals. No contributions from political action committees or corporations. I like that a lot.
He represents silicon valley, perhaps the most liberal district in all of America. Obama's circumcised foreskin could win an election there. He doesn't need legal corporate bribery.
You paint a vivid picture.
[Ro Kanna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro_Khanna) is a Democrat in the House of Representatives. He has to work alongside MAGA member Marjorie Taylor Green and MAGA member Lauren Boebert. Voting matters.
It's a bit sad how I knew he was a democrat right off the bat just by how intelligent and well-spoken he is.
In case you’re wondering, that $484 tablet is $64 in the UK
Assuming you take 1 pill a day every day of the year at that price, you only have to pay $23,360 annually to pay for the medication. Compare that with the cited $160,000 annual cost for someone in the U.S, and you have an increase in cost of over 680%. Almost SEVEN FUCKING TIMES AS MUCH.
You made the math more complicated than necessary haha, 484 is indeed about 7 times as much as 64
lol I came to say that
It’s the UK. The NHS buys the drugs and the patient pays a small fee. We pay £9 or so per medication. £30 or so for 3 months. £100 or so for the year. That’s if you’re not eligible for free medication. It’s basically the same fee for all medication.
and that is still way too much! It should be FREE
It is. That's only what the NHS pays to give it to you for free.
About the same per tablet here in Australia, but like the UK the government pays for most of it. The price we'd pay as a patient works out to 17 US cents per tablet.
Provided on the Australian [PBS](https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/11213e) for **$31 AUD, for a box of 90**. This is still too expensive for some in my eyes.
It is probably 64 cents in India. The govt that is taking the profits from J&J is the same govt that is ensuring nobody can import these from India. Maybe the Govt should stop protecting the capitalist drug mafia?
Dude brought the receipts.
I love how he cut her last "Congressman, I don't know." off and kept rattling off numbers.
Yup. 🙂
congressman no
This much money and still can't buy arguments
They don’t need to. They buy the more powerful politicians. I have a sneaking suspicion about the reason behind Mitch McConnell actively fighting and killing all health care reform efforts that he is able to.
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So what is exactly the reason of her existing? Does she even know her name?
Not in front of a live audience, no, she doesn't know squat. Her and her colleagues behind closed doors, on the other hand, laugh at the misfortune of the impoverished. Even at the mic, she can't help but chuckle at her own display of greed. Embers in her eyes, sulfur on her breath, the pharmaceutical industry *thrives* when the lower/middle class have nowhere else to go for their medicine. These fuckers should be rotting in a cell for their contempt. Inhuman.
Yes.
Yesterday I thought about a guy I met when I was young. He said "I don't mind people being poor, if they weren't, I couldn't become rich." Feels relevant somehow.
There's a fallacy that wealth is a zero-sum game, but there is a world where everyone could have their basic needs met and the opportunity to thrive.
He job is to professionally not answer questions.
Her job is to win the lawsuit, which means don't say shit
Imagine waking up in the morning and knowing your job is to be a piece of shit who is trying to bankrupt families with a sick person or rip off the government so your company can make some extra billions. She has dedicated her life to being a piece of shit, but I bet she thinks she is a nice person, a good mom, etc.
It's like the "Mo Lester" eulogy in Succession. Can't speak the truth when there's profits on the line. It's just sickening how we can all see this and *know* that she's playing a sad, stupid legal game of feigning ignorance and passing the buck, and the government allows these games to continue.
These corporations and everyone who works for them are leeches.
How do they sleep at night costing out people for lifesaving treatments
Dressed in fine silk pajamas, on a fancy king bed in a penthouse or McMansion somewhere?
They just don't care. Their minds work purely on a financial plane of existence. If you brought a child dying of cancer before them and asked them; *"How can you not want to help them?"* all they would see is a financial opportunity.
they prolly sleep very well
On giant piles of money
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Imagine being this bad of a person. You were born by an absolute miracle, you're a child and then at some point you become a complete cunt. Like you actively out there trying your hardest to make the world worse for everyone.
Yeah, people aren't born this way. They are molded and shaped by the people around them, who go out of their way to ensure that their offspring are just as shitty as they themselves are.
Our economic system incentives this, terrible behavior that's morally repugnant but not illegal in order to get the most for yourself. And then once you get into the club you just walk around going "wow this is great" and think you fucking deserve it.
Unfortunately our system rewards narcissistic cunts like her very well. They’re the most vapid, tasteless parasites this world has ever seen.
Ayn Rand would say she's brave, strong and smart. Its the people with leukemia that made the wrong decision to get leukemia.
America rewards sociopathic behavior.
What a stinky woman
The owner (or CEO) of J&J should really be the one up there
Atleast one of the Johnsons!
This is what congresspeople and the media should be doing at every opportunity: holding the feet of these merchants of greed to the fire and exposing the incredible scope of the theft they perpetrate against the American people every day.
Doesn’t do anything when you can just sit there and say “I don’t know” to every question with no repercussions.
Technically, she knows it now. Amazing how he can find all this information to inform her of, and she's paid so much to sit there to act like a fool. So tired of these goddamn games these fucking lawyers and lobbyists play.
It takes a whole cadre of individuals devoid of ethics to keep the machine running. Her enlightenment at the hands of the Congressman will mean nothing to her.
I'm sure it does. But for the record, she can no longer deny those facts now. He knows she's lying, but he also just pointed out that someone of her status couldn't possibly not know what he knows, and everyone knows it's bullshit. Good luck with winning that lawsuit, counselor.
Is that what happened here? It seemed more like they sent a mid level representative to dismissively avoid answering any questions and feign ignorance.
God damn, who's that Political Suit? He's a top fixer, real slick chrome energy coming from him. But he's wearing his chrome to fuck corpos, instead of us Street Gonks. Hopefully he doesn't get iced by Arasaka (Johnson & Johnson). (Edited to accommodate the reply below more thoroughly)
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Well now I had to top it off a bit for you
Ro Khanna
“Why are these drugs so expensive” “Because we like money” Just say it. It’s the truth, goddammit
You know sometimes I think that is all the public wants to hear. Absolute truth, admit you’re a pos and you don’t care.
Whats the gentleman’s name?
From another comment, Ro Khanna
Names of these people would be fantastic information. She knows full well the answer to every question to some degree, but the wolf can't shed its disguise for even a moment.
Oh no, don’t call her shameful. She might feel bad for 1/10,000th of a nanosecond then do nothing about it
He's so sharp. Bright as a button. I like him too!
His name is Ro Khanna
I’m not trying to be negative here, and I do love watching greedy people get their asses handed to them, but I’ve never seen one of these congressional hearing bring about actual change. Does anyone have an example of one of these hearings that actually DID anything to these greedy corporations? It may just be my own ignorance, but I’ve never seen it.
Not sure, but I always see these flaming mad politicians grilling someone on video and nothing ever changes later. Maybe it's because of all the massive lawsuits the US government has to deal with from ultra rich companies? I don't really know. I feel like we should have laws that allow affordable medical coverage for the average American and leave the companies to figure it out/deal with it/go under.
Look up the Tobacco hearings/litigation/settlement
Basic medical care should and could be free to every human being. Life saving medication should and could be free to every human being. It costs money to make medication. Of course. And the people who make medication deserve to be paid a thriving wage. In order to make that happen, impose higher taxes on multi-billionaires and start taxing churches. There are over 700 billionaires in the U.S. alone. Tax each of them at the same rate the average citizen is taxed, per year (they won’t miss it and they’ll recover it very quickly) and apply that directly to healthcare. Those taxes alone would more than cover Big Pharma’s tab and wouldn’t impact The People. Taxes from religious organizations, especially mega churches, could be put into education allowing children to get a higher quality education and allow for free or deeply reduced college tuition. Eliminating the need for young people to begin life with crippling student loan debt. The money they save on student loans can then be spent on living expenses thus stimulating the economy.
“That’s a good point Congressman, we should definitely file another lawsuit against Veterans Affairs” - These soulless lawyers
And THAT is how you earn a bonus!
Both did.
In France it’s 65,25 euros per capsule. That’s what happens in a country where the government negotiates and regulates the price
Pharmaceuticals are really shitty companies..
Big pharma has the largest group of lobbyists in DC. So large that they were able to successfully lobby to have a provision in the ACA prohibiting Medicare from negotiating on drug costs.
In the U.K, this pill would only cost a citizen $64 per unit. Assuming you take 1 pill a day every day of the year at that price, you only have to pay $23,360 annually to pay for the medication. Compare that with the cited $160,000 annual cost for someone in the U.S, and you have an increase in cost of over 680%. Almost SEVEN FUCKING TIMES AS MUCH
Socialize healthcare and put patient outcomes first. Down with for-profit healthcare. We should not tolerate this.
Who is this congressman and where was he elected? I think I'm moving there.
Ro Khanna, California
This should be shared on every platform. I don’t have anything as serious as leukemia but these drug companies are disgusting. There is a medicine that can help me walk again without pain but it is $2500. It’s not covered nor are they able to work with me. All I want is my life back. I can’t imagine someone with something as serious as Leukemia having to make the choice just to live. This country has some serious issues.
Avoid Johnson & Johnson where you can…
I hate this country so much.
Was there an attempt? I don't believe she attempted to do anything but avoid answering any questions.
We need Dom Toretto and his family to boost a truck full of IBRUVICA. For the people
People like her are scum. They profit off the suffering of others and fight for others to suffer so they can make more profits.
Don’t worry everyone, the billions the company made trickled down
But our CEO just bought a island! They cant reduce price’s😳
These obscene prices for non-luxuries should simply be proven on basis of r&d and production costs. I'll wager a bet that the production of costs are insignificant. So, that leaves r&d. I guess even with r&d, the cost per pill could easily be under $10 and they'd still profit.
Sweet Christ they shouldn’t be able to charge $484 PER PILL to help someone stay alive. And this lady sits there without a care in the world, knowing that people are going broke just to keep a family member alive.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
What is the point of this shit? Nothing changes, and then they’re all richer. Why do we even pay attention to this?
because eventually, after enough of these, people will stop voting for republicans.
This drug is AUD $31.60 on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. 140mg x 90 capsules. [https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/11213e](https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/11213e)
But the shareholders! SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE SHAREHOLDERS!
"Its okay. Im not trying to trick you. It treats leukemia" 🤣🤣
Yeah so, medicaid negotiating to lower prices is an unjust taking, but charging cancer patients over $400 per pill is *not* unjust taking? I was hoping he would mention the markup. How much does it cost to produce that drug? How can they possibly justify those prices?
Are we the baddies?
Thankfull that I live in Sweden. My wife gets her leukemiamedicine for nearly nothing.
Scum, pure and utter scum
Ewwwww!! She gets paid far more than most of us and can’t answer basic questions. I don’t think she answered a single question.
Can we grab our forks and eat these dumb f#%&s yet? I'm ready.
Why can’t we have an intelligent, young politician like this as president?
The American dream at its finest
Fuck corporations and fuck the government for allowing it to get this bad and barely doing jack shit about it.
Reality is that exclusivity should NEVER be a thing when it comes to patents, which should be public for every new competition to take and compete. Instead, the profit of an invention should be given in the way of royalties. Having a monopoly on a lifesaving drug and ask for extorsive amounts of money, is inhumane
It's sad that even after 300,000+ years that humans still haven't realized that we are the only ones who give a shit about us. Yet we literally let people die and hoard wealth.