SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
A "caravan" of Americans living with Type 1 diabetes made its way across the U.S. border into Canada over the weekend in search of affordable medical care in a country where they can get the "exact same" life-saving drugs for a dramatically lower price.
"We're on a #CaravanToCanada because the USA charges astronomical prices for insulin that most people can't afford," tweeted caravan member Quinn Nystrom as she shared updates on the journey.
Nystrom was among a group of Minnesotans who piled into cars on Friday to make the 600-mile journey from the Twin Cities to Fort Frances, Ontario, where she said insulin, the hormone patients with Type 1 Diabetes rely on to regulate their blood glucose levels, can be bought for a tenth of what it costs in the U.S.
The caravan was organized as part of a campaign launched under the banner "#insulinforall" to call on the U.S. government to regulate the cost of life-saving drugs, including insulin, and make medication affordable for anyone who needs it.
[...]
President Donald Trump's administration has vowed to address calls for greater drug pricing regulation. But, Democrats, including Cummings, have criticized the U.S. leader for being all talk and no action on that promise.
"Tweets are not enough," Cummings said in a statement, after Trump lamented high drug costs on Twitter. "We need real action and meaningful reform," Cummings said.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dry on Wednesday May 08 2019, @04:46AM (2 children)
When Canada went single payer, which included price controls on Dr pay, the Doctors went ape shit, striking and such. Eventually they realized that they actually made more money as billing was so much simpler. Generally, they just bill the government from a set price list. If you show up here at a Dr office, you'll get billed the same amount that the government pays for me ($38 for a basic visit last I checked) though they will take advantage of the exchange rate if you want to pay cash with American money.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday May 08 2019, @05:00AM (1 child)
Do you have some references for this, like news articles or the like? This is something I don't hear much about in the US debates on this topic.
(Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday May 08 2019, @05:55AM
Hmm, not off hand, but quickly DDGing gives this interesting study, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3110239/ [nih.gov] with some references. Seems the (first?) strike was in Saskatchewan and what made the doctors happy was ease of being paid, no bouncing cheques and such.
Canada is like the States in some ways, a federation of sovereign units, Provinces in our case and single payer was introduced at the Provincial level first and even now, Provinces can opt out and it is run by the feds like your highway system as Constitutionally, the Feds can't force the Provinces to do some things including healthcare so they have to bribe. Canada actually has 14 single payer systems, 10 Provinces, 3 Territories (treated like Provinces generally, but the feds sign off laws instead of the Queen or her representative) and the Feds (veterans, natives and such).