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posted by takyon on Thursday January 03 2019, @06:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the same-old-new-year dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Source: Big Pharma ushers in new year with price hikes on hundreds of drugs

More than three dozen drug companies welcomed the new year with sweeping price hikes on hundreds of medicines, according to a new analysis from Rx Savings Solutions, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The drugs that saw list-price increases on January 1 ranged from generics and blood-pressure drugs to brand-name prescriptions such as the dry-eye treatment Restasis. The average price jump blew past inflation at 6.5 percent, with some medicines seeing double-digit increases—bucking many drug companies' vows to keep such periodic hikes under 10 percent.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 03 2019, @08:38PM (30 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday January 03 2019, @08:38PM (#781667) Homepage Journal

    Said it before and I'll say it again. Universal healthcare is a pointless discussion until you deal with the reasons healthcare costs an arm and a leg to begin with.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday January 03 2019, @08:58PM (5 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 03 2019, @08:58PM (#781682) Journal

    But it's specifically a way of doing that. Monopoly power on supply side for necessary-to-live drugs with a near-infinitely flat demand curve can be answered with a monopoly on the purchasing side.

    It's not a perfect solution to that problem, given the dysfunction of our proposed collective negotiator. It sure as hell is a solution to that specific problem.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:04PM (3 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:04PM (#781752) Homepage Journal

      Yes, it is. I agree. Let's try a better one with less side effects first though.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday January 04 2019, @01:38AM (2 children)

        by Thexalon (636) on Friday January 04 2019, @01:38AM (#781833)

        What do you propose as an alternative way to bring costs down with less side effects, since single-payer is apparently out? I can think of a few alternatives, but none of them seem to quite work:
        - Curtail patent protection for pharmaceuticals so market competition drives prices down? That's a pretty big change, and a pretty big side effect is that it eliminates the incentive of drug companies to develop new drugs rather than wait for somebody else to develop new drugs.

        - Some sort of system based on the private insurance companies negotiating prices down? That's the status quo, and the status quo by your own admission isn't working.

        - Price controls set by the government? That's pretty darn intrusive government meddling. Also, what I'd expect to happen in the event of price controls is for all of the pharma companies to suddenly develop new variations on their old drugs that just happen to exempt them from the price controls.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 2) by driverless on Friday January 04 2019, @08:57AM

          by driverless (4770) on Friday January 04 2019, @08:57AM (#781971)

          Do what our government does, a modified reverse auction where the government tells the drug cartels what they're allowed to sell their stuff for for a range of widely-used meds. That's what government is for, to step in where required to ensure the population has a chance against predatory corporations.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 04 2019, @11:42AM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday January 04 2019, @11:42AM (#781995) Homepage Journal

          Plenty of ideas worth discussing there, yes. Some that need dealt with regardless of public or private.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by jimbrooking on Friday January 04 2019, @01:48AM

      by jimbrooking (3465) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 04 2019, @01:48AM (#781837)

      I can't help comparing the pharma conglomerates with the Latin American drug cartels. They make products that (they convince you that, or else) you can't live without, then jack up the prices to the "whatever the market will bear" level. How, exactly, does big pharma differ from sinaloa? I think we need a different sort of "war on drugs".

  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday January 03 2019, @08:59PM (1 child)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Thursday January 03 2019, @08:59PM (#781683) Journal

    Not at all pointless. The possibility of universal healthcare is at the least a threat to their profits. We can do any amount of regulating up to nationalizing all our drugs, and they know that.

    So they're testing us. Giving the nation a little prod in the butt. The hard swift kick of hiking Daraprim and EpiPens by much, much more than a mere doubling, was too much, so they've toned it down a little. The question is, are we going to give them some consequences for their anti-social actions?

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:09PM (7 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:09PM (#781692) Journal

    Universal healthcare is a pointless discussion until you deal with the reasons healthcare costs an arm and a leg to begin with.

    It's because people elect a government that grants special concessions and privileges to the industry to limit competition. And they believe the bullshit that it "costs too much". There are no real technical or legitimate economic issues with universal health care. It's purely political antipathy that prevents it from happening.

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 03 2019, @10:59PM (6 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday January 03 2019, @10:59PM (#781747) Homepage Journal

      I don't disagree with the first bit. How about we fix that, see where we stand, and go from there.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:11PM (5 children)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:11PM (#781759) Journal

        First, discard the antipathy. That's the only problem right now. After that all your doubts will vanish. Nothing else to it.

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 04 2019, @01:03AM (4 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday January 04 2019, @01:03AM (#781818) Homepage Journal

          My antipathy for voting money from someone else's pocket to your own is going nowhere any time soon, sorry.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 04 2019, @01:25AM

            by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday January 04 2019, @01:25AM (#781828) Journal

            You just don't understand the circular nature of things. You see only linear.

            --
            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
          • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday January 04 2019, @02:27AM (2 children)

            by Thexalon (636) on Friday January 04 2019, @02:27AM (#781856)

            Here's the part you seem to be missing: It's not that money is coming from someone else's pocket into your own, it's money that was going to someone else's pocket from your pocket is now not going there.

            Right now, you either are going uninsured, or have some kind of private health insurance, or you're covered by a government program. If you go uninsured, then you're completely screwed if something seriously bad happens to you (illness or serious injury), so that doesn't make for a good plan. If you're covered by the government, you're already funded by tax dollars, so single-payer is by definition no worse.

            So that leaves private insurance to the tune of something like $600 a month. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 85% of that money has to go to health care (before the ACA, even less of that money went to health care). Which means that you just paid $90 for your insurance company's advertising, executive compensation, and a whole bunch of other stuff that doesn't help you out at all. Even completely ignoring any negotiating benefits from single-payer, and even if you make government bureaucracy out to be more inefficient than corporate bureaucracy, your insurance company's executive compensation alone can pay for a *lot* of civil service bureaucrats. So, when the dust settles, you're probably paying something like $550 for exactly the same health care you had before, saving you $50 a month, or $600 a year, and the losers are executives, marketing droids, and of course shareholders who had to reinvest their money somewhere else. What's the problem?

            A particularly telling aspect of this was that back in 2010, with the Affordable Care Act, the insurance companies fought tooth and nail to prevent the "public option", where the government would run an insurance plan alongside the private insurers and give citizens the option to buy in. The plan was for the public option to be funded entirely by the people who chose to use it. So why were the private insurers against this, if the government bureaucracy was so horribly inefficient that they couldn't possibly compete with the private sector?

            --
            The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 04 2019, @11:47AM

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday January 04 2019, @11:47AM (#781997) Homepage Journal

              Interesting argument but I'm getting ready for a ten hour drive a day before I was scheduled to. Drop me a bump reply to leave me a reminder message and I'll get back to you tomorrow.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 04 2019, @08:39PM

              by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday January 04 2019, @08:39PM (#782223) Journal

              You know, in the end it all boils down to who gets stuck with the paperwork. I pay taxes for the government to do it (here's lookin' at you, IRS!). That is kind of its purpose, along with the common defense and all that. Why don't we have universal health care? It is pure antipathy, all the false pretenses and bean counting are based on that. There is nothing else. The money issues just aren't issues, they are distractions, rationalizations for hatred. There's more than enough, just have to manage it transparently. But until there there is sufficient demand, voiced through the vote, nothing is going to happen beyond the continuing slow decline.

              --
              La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:27PM (7 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:27PM (#781707) Journal

    And the existence of several universal healthcare systems that provide better care at much cheaper costs won't convince you otherwise!

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 03 2019, @10:58PM (4 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday January 03 2019, @10:58PM (#781746) Homepage Journal

      No, they won't, because I've explained that illusion away too many times.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:20PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:20PM (#781764)

        Don't believe your lying eyes! It's all a vast left-wing conspiracy!

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:58PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:58PM (#781782)

        a Canadian speaking, our system is both great and terrible. it is great when you have urgent (think car accidents, or appendectomy ) or major ( organ transplant, cancer)
        it terrible for minor ailment and it suck to wait a few weeks for initial imaging to get into the system for a problem. but I think it is way better to received free world-class treatment for cancer and the like and to lose half a day for something minor than being able to cheaply and quickly see a doctor for minor ailment and having to take a new morgage if I ever got cancer....

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 04 2019, @01:06AM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday January 04 2019, @01:06AM (#781819) Homepage Journal

          And I respect you folks' right to choose that. I don't want it here though.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday January 04 2019, @02:28AM

          by Gaaark (41) on Friday January 04 2019, @02:28AM (#781857) Journal

          Yup: between my son being born 2.5 months early and my wife's 3 cancer scares (hysterectomy, breast biopsy we're still awaiting results for, and her blood being wonky, possibly leukemia??) my family would probably be bankrupt if we weren't Canadian.

          Dog bless Canada.

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 04 2019, @01:44AM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 04 2019, @01:44AM (#781834) Journal

      The problem with a universal health care is, the pharmas will still be overcharging for all their products. The only real difference is, you, the individual end user, won't have to cough up all the money for your pharmaceuticals. The cost will be spread out among the many. And, that is precisely what today's insurance does, except, each insurance company has fewer "members" than the universal health care will have.

      As TMB suggests, we need to get a handle on the profiteers - including those insurance companies.

      Pretty much everyone involved in health care is being paid too much. Everyone with money invested demands too much profit. And, government stands behind them, protecting their "right" to demand extravagant profits.

      End all those monopolies, and stop Big Pharma calling the shots. We need those generic drugs that Big Pharma fights against.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday January 04 2019, @02:32AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Friday January 04 2019, @02:32AM (#781859) Journal

        Well put.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:43PM (4 children)

    by Snow (1601) on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:43PM (#781718) Journal

    Maybe one of the reasons it's so expensive is because all those private hospitals need to make a profit.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 03 2019, @10:56PM (2 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday January 03 2019, @10:56PM (#781745) Homepage Journal

      You pay for it either way. You can either pay directly or you can pay via taxes and add a ton of waste on governmental overhead. The people bitching don't really care about public or private; they care about making someone else pay for their care.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @04:20AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @04:20AM (#781903)

        Government overhead or insurance company overhead, either way there's overhead. At least the government overhead doesn't include trying to make a profit.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @05:02AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @05:02AM (#781912)

        No, you can pay a lot less for a good system if you eliminate the rent-seeking profiteers, The money that goes into the pockets of those who run insurance companies does nothing for your health, it is simply an extra cost you pay on top. You are blinded by the self-fulfilling ideology that governments cannot do anything well.
        Import a few medical administrators from UK/CA/AU if yours can't understand how to run a system for the benefit of the patients rather than the profits of the already wealthy.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @01:51AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @01:51AM (#781839)

      Thank the patron saint of the Repugnicans, Ronald Raygun

      Many health care systems before him were non-profit.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 04 2019, @08:18AM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday January 04 2019, @08:18AM (#781967) Journal

    Greed. This is not difficult: when a good or service has extremely inelastic demand, the suppliers can charge basically whatever the fuck they want, because it is literally "your money or your life."

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...