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Company prioritizes $15k ventilators over cheaper model specified in contract:
The Dutch company that received millions of taxpayer dollars to develop an affordable ventilator for pandemics but never delivered them has struck a much more lucrative deal with the federal government to make 43,000 ventilators at four times the price.
The US Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it plans to pay Royal Philips N.V. $646.7 million for the new ventilators—paying more than $15,000 each. The first 2,500 units are to arrive before the end of May, HHS said, and the rest by the end of December.
Philips refused to say which model of ventilator the government was buying. But in response to questions from ProPublica, HHS officials said the government is purchasing the Trilogy EV300, the more expensive version of the ventilator that was developed with federal funds.
The deal is a striking departure from the federal contract Philips' Respironics division signed in September to produce 10,000 ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile at a cost of $3,280 each.
"This kind of profiteering—paying four times the negotiated price—is not only irresponsible to taxpayers but is particularly offensive when so many people are out of work," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who served as the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response during the Obama administration. "And besides, most of these ventilators will come too late to make a difference in this pandemic. We'll then 'replenish' the stockpile at a ridiculously high price."
"What else," she asked, "won't we be able to buy as a result?"
(Score: 3, Informative) by Entropy on Monday April 13 2020, @02:27PM (6 children)
Food prices go up during food shortage..
Ventilator prices go up during a ventilator shortage..(and a plague requiring ventilators..)
x prices go up during a x shortage...
Does anyone in their right mind really expect in the midst of a long term power outage generators would sell for their normal price, or less? This is basic economics.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @02:32PM
If you think this is basic economics, you should get a refund on the tuition.
Food prices go up because it's not as easy as the government ordering companies to make more of it and guaranteeing to pay the costs. This is profiteering. The government could order just about any company with manufacturing capacity to convert to building respirators for a fixed price. And then just pay cost + a reasonable profit. They could also throw the execs at companies like this in prison for profiteering like they used to.
Sadly, it's gone out of style to hold execs accountable when they cause people to die so that their bottom line does a bit better. It's probably getting time to start investing in companies that produce guillotines as the people are fed up of white collar crime going unpunished while the rest of us suffer,.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 13 2020, @03:02PM
I especially liked the part where individual US cities and states were bidding each other, and FEMA, up on eBay seeking the same product.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ilsa on Monday April 13 2020, @04:21PM
"greedy capitalists" = "basic economics" succinctly describes the US.
I find it interesting that regular people have been penalized for trying to resell sanitizer and TP at elevated prices, and yet companies and the rich get a free pass for doing the _exact same thing_.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 13 2020, @05:31PM (1 child)
Generators are useful only as long as you have fuel.
If we have a power outage more than 10 days, our civilization will collapse to the stoned age.
Imagine:
* power is out, but you still have working car
* you can still get groceries, but shelves are soon bare
* trucks can re-stock as long as there is fuel
* you can refuel car as long as there is fuel
* without electricity filling station pumps don't work.
* the filling station pumps will be siphoned dry soon.
* there are no more truck resupply of either groceries or fuel -- because no fuel
* riots, looting, killing and raping. (those with superior planning skills will reverse the killing and raping steps)
* military might help, for a short time, but they don't have infinite fuel resources, soldiers have their own families, desertions, civil society collapse
* government agencies eventually stop looking for people skilled in cobol
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:32AM
Luckily we have plenty of fuel, since demand has dropped greatly with staying at home, combined with dumping by big players. In WI (low gas tax) I heard the price last week was USD $1.12/gallon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @08:31PM
And that is the point where a Government will step in to protect it's people if it is price gouging. Yes, I expect that a vendor will keep their prices equal to the same profit margin in the midst of a crisis. They can raise prices if their expenses go up. Because the company doing that will face penalties worse than those fines if they are caught at it. If an individual buys up a shelf full of hand sanitizer with the expectation of selling it off at 10 times the price that is gouging and such a person should in fact be sent to jail. 1.5 times the price? It's still a gouge because that person has offered no value for it but probably not prosecutable.
If there is anything that the online market has ruined it is the ability for governments to protect people from price gougers.
Have some common sense. Does anybody in their right mind think that price gouging should be allowed? That is basic humanity.