Bonkers pricing of "free" flu shots shows what's wrong with US healthcare
The annual flu shots that are free to those with health insurance are not immune from the convoluted and contemptible price-gouging that plague the US healthcare system.
Health insurance companies pay wildly different amounts for the same vaccines depending on how negotiations go with individual medical providers across the country. In some cases, providers have forced insurers to pay upward of three times the price they would pay to other providers, according to an investigation by Kaiser Health News.
The outlet noted that one Sacramento, California, doctors' office got an insurer to pay $85 for a flu shot that it offered to uninsured patients for $25.
Though $85 might seem like a trifling amount in the bloated scheme of the US healthcare system, such prices quickly add up as tens of millions of people receive a flu shot each year. And while the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover the full costs of all federally recommended vaccines, including the flu vaccine, any extra costs to insurers get passed on to patients through higher insurance premiums, economists told KHN.
Looking further at what insurers paid for flu vaccines, KHN found that costs spanned the whole range from $25 to $85. A doctor in Long Beach, California, got insurer Cigna to pay $47.53 for a shot, while a CVS in downtown Washington, DC, got $32 from Cigna for the same shot. A CVS just 10 miles away in Maryland got $40.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:00AM (5 children)
Deregulate and allow as much competition as possible. Get those flu shots included with a Happy Meal for only an extra 25 cents!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Booga1 on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:16AM (1 child)
Some of the folks at McD's already have on the job experience!
Pennsylvania: https://www.news.com.au/news/national/mcdonalds-employee-charged-with-selling-drugs-in-happy-meal-kits/news-story/da9930d61cbd98ba94a104a3d92ce70f [news.com.au]
New York: https://abc7ny.com/bronx-mcdonalds-manager-accused-of-selling-drugs/2489617/ [abc7ny.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by jasassin on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:30AM
>
Now that's what I call a happy meal!
😁
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:19AM (1 child)
That's still not free!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @02:41AM
...because "free" exists? I suppose if you're RMS and think that living in your MIT office is "free" and doesn't cost the labor of janitors paid by student tuition to clean up after you, and that other people will donate loads of time to go chase bugs in your crap software because labor, manpower, and know-how expertise is also "free," then sure. Otherwise... no.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @08:37AM
Fun fact! A lot of the costs in the medical system are because of doctors offices having to navigate all of the different insurance billing systems. If you standardize the billing system, though it would be a regulatory burden on companies, it would also reduce costs in the system overall.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:13AM (34 children)
The best part is these flu shots are a waste of money anyway. The only people who should get them are those who want to control when they get the flu.
(Score: 4, Informative) by jasassin on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:23AM (33 children)
I go to a free clinic since I have no insurance. The shot was free. At first I declined with a comment like yours. The doctor told me and I quote "You might get sick, but it won't be from the shot." The doctor also said it's a good idea because I have an elderly mother. Both those factors convinced me to get the shot.
FYI, I haven't got sick from it.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:34AM (27 children)
I have no insurance and will not be getting the shot. I also do not want insurance because it is a scam. Everything is 50-99% off if you pay cash, and you get to save your money and spend it how you want no questions asked. There is zero reason to give your money to insurance companies who are going to try to weasel out of doing what you paid them to do.
BTW, if you didn't get sick that means it didn't work.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:43AM (18 children)
That is not true. If he didn't get sick it worked as it was supposed to.
If he got the flu anyway, it means the vaccine was for a different strain of flu.
The CDC has more info here. [cdc.gov]
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:49AM (11 children)
The way vaccinations work is by triggering your immune system to think an infection is present. If a vaccination induces no response, chances are it didn't take. The point is you are supposed to be *less sick*, at a time of your choosing.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @02:39AM (2 children)
The influenza virus uses Hemagglutinin to bind to the Sialic Acid present on the Columnar Epithelial cells present in the respiratory tract. It is literally impossible to get the flu (a respiratory illness) from something injected in your blood. In addition, there aren't many such sites in your body to cause a similar infection. The only symptoms most people get is from the general immune response from your body and if you are otherwise in good health, it is very possible to get literally no symptoms. In self-reporting studies, only ~57% of people reported any adverse effects at all, including a sore arm, and 12% reported their children had any symptoms other than a sore arm and the rate of adverse events is even lower, as in almost zero, the older you get, until you reach 65-70, where it climbs up to the approximately 5%. Even if those reporting rates are markedly lower than the real ones because people don't want to be "wusses," it is still far from a guarantee that you will get any symptoms, other than a sore arm, if you increase them by an order of magnitude.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @03:56AM (1 child)
Wow only about 60% of people report any adverse event, and this drops with age? I wonder what else is reported to happen about 60% of the time and drop with age... Can you think of anything?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @10:41PM
Anti-vaxxers learning something new?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday November 21 2019, @03:00AM (6 children)
It triggers an immune response, yes. However, without living viruses there's no actual infection, so it's just the initial immune response you have to deal with - maybe some minor discomfort for a day or two, quite likely nothing at all. While catching the flu will likely lay you down for a week or two. (actual influenza, not whatever unrelated cold you might call "a touch of flu" - there's a lot of other stuff also going around during "flu" season)
Of course the legitimate counterpoint is that in order to get a flu shot you will probably go to a doctor or clinic - a particularly pathogen-rich environment where you're much more likely than usual to catch something else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @03:58AM (5 children)
Why are people just parroting talking points at me? Where did anyone say the flu shot is giving you the flu? A vaccine that doesn't make you feel sick, is a vaccine your body didn't respond to, is a vaccine that didn't work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @04:24AM (2 children)
You might be retarded.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @04:50AM (1 child)
Nope, you are just very wrong and have too low of self esteem to admit it to yourself.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mer on Thursday November 21 2019, @07:23AM
sure vaccines made from weakened viruses were the first vaccines
sure some vaccines are made from whole viruses genetically tweaked to be harmless
MOST vaccines are just the empty shells of viruses without the RNA inside, because that's easier and less dangerous when it works
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday November 21 2019, @03:00PM (1 child)
Because you're wrong.
Feeling sick is almost entirely a reaction to an infection consuming your body to produce more of itself, while making you as contagious as possible (sweaty hands, cough, mucous, vomiting, and/or diarrhea are all infection channels promoted by the disease), NOT to your body learning to fight it off. And a vaccine only triggers the second reaction.
Unless you're allergic to the vaccine, at worst it will trigger a response similar to very mild allergies, and probably not even that. Think of all the diseases with no symptoms until days or weeks after your infection - your immune response fires up immediately - but symptoms don't begin until a critical mass of infection is present to cause the disease to change its strategy to Phase 2.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @10:06PM
Half, right, anyway. Still modded you insightful.
Sickness reactions are both the illness reproducing itself and also the body's defenses in fighting it. Fever (raise the body temperature because most pathogens are very temperature sensitive), increased mucous and other fluid production to isolate and contain the pathogen, achiness from inflammation (and the inflammation itself from histamine reactions again trying to constrict the pathogen's movement, as well as the body's innate defenses killing off the agent and leaving detritus which the body must then rid itself of or recycle), nausea (often from body chemistry changes from needing the sudden activation of the immune system), etc. Diarrhea is the body's way of trying to *clear* the alimentary canal by slowing moisture absorption from the canal and adding moisture to it in order to flush the pathogen out, not the illness acting. The sicknesses are just as much the body's "selfish" defenses acting as the damage caused by the illness. Passive defense before active defense can react.
That said, the active defense system takes time. It takes the body between one and two weeks to recognize the antigens, synthesize enough antibodies to attack them, then carry out that counterattack. (Plus train the B-cell memory cells which will recognize the disease next time around and mount the defense more quickly).
Vaccine reactions, if they happen at all, are usually the passive immune system reacting to some component of the vaccine. And if it is an actual illness.... you probably already had that illness incubating before you got the vaccine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 22 2019, @04:12PM
That's so wrong it's not even right.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday November 21 2019, @04:01AM (4 children)
I think there's a few different meanings of "got sick" here.
If a live flu vaccine works, then you will get the flu, and will be contagious for a few days, but it will be such a mild case that you probably won't notice. The doctor should have told the guy to be careful around his mother for a few days.
If it doesn't work there are two modes of failure:
1) The vaccine wasn't weakened enough for your system, and you get the flu you would have gotten anyway.
2) The vaccine was too weak, and you didn't get the disease or the immune reaction.
The first failure mode is quite uncommon. The second failure mode is common among the elderly, and others with weakened immune systems. They often recommend a stronger vaccine to properly stimulate the immune reaction.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday November 21 2019, @10:20PM (3 children)
No, you will NOT "get the flu" by getting the vaccine. [cdc.gov]
The particles of influenza that are in the vaccine have been INACTIVATED. As in made not possible to replicate or be transmitted. You will NOT be "contagious". All that will happen is your body's active defense systems will train themselves to recognize the antigens of the strain delivered so that if you get that particular strain of flu the body begins its active defenses to kill it right away because it recognizes the pathogen.
If it "does not work" it has happened for three primary reasons:
1) You contracted one of the other hundreds (thousands?) of strains of flu the vaccine didn't cover. The vaccine only covers the four strains that researchers feel are the greatest threats in the coming season. You can read this [cdc.gov] to begin to get an idea how complex the subject becomes.
2) You ALREADY had the flu but it hadn't reached the stage of making you sick yet. (i.e. the vaccine was delivered too late).
3) You may have a very mild reaction to the shot. In a controlled placebo study it was found the same rates of mild symptoms occurred in those given sterile water injections and not the vaccine. I'm not sure about that (rough to take just one study), but I am sure that those mild symptoms are not the flu.
Again: YOU DO NOT GET LIVE INFLUENZA FROM A FLU VACCINE.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday November 22 2019, @12:21AM (2 children)
That's not what my doctor said.
And he specifically told me to stay away from immune challenged people for several days. I didn't notice any symptoms, which is what I expected, but I expect that I got an extremely weak case of the flu. (A short web search says that that is true only of the nasal flu vaccine, but I think I'll continue to trust my doctor over the web.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday November 22 2019, @12:52AM
Doctors are often very bad with pharmacological knowledge. Pharmacies spent a lot of time on the phone with doctors trying to rectify bad prescriptions. Eg. ear drops for ear infections prescribed for eye infections, double the dose needed of drugs that have side effects, drugs which in combination cause death.
Trusting your doctor when it comes to an area they are not experts in is a bad idea
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday November 22 2019, @04:07PM
You are correct that the nasal spray vaccine contains an attenuated live virus. However, it too CANNOT give you the flu [cdc.gov] - it doesn't have the ability to enter cells and replicate. There is exactly one recorded possible exception to this in the case of a toddler. One. (And any exception to this would be big medical news).
It's a smart idea to stay away from immunocompromised people if you may be sick. And it is routine advice to tell people to stay away from immunocompromised people if you are receiving any live attenuated vaccines (nasal flu, MMR, oral typhoid, yellow fever, herpes zoster, rotavirus, oral polio). From 2014 guidelines, only OPV is contraindicated to administer [aafp.org] to an immunocompetent person living in a home with an immunocompromised individual. But the only reason to do so after getting the vaccine is because you are not yet protected - it takes a week to two weeks for your body to respond fully to the vaccine. And again, if you already have the virus in your system getting the vaccine will not help.
But again, you did not get the flu from the flu vaccine. That you trust your Doctor, great! Wish more people did. Should you trust "the internet"? No. But will you trust:
Harvard Medical School [harvard.edu]
University of California San Francisco medical school [ucsfhealth.org]
Columbia University [columbia.edu]
Johns Hopkins medical school [hopkinsmedicine.org]
And, as before, CDC [cdc.gov]
Those aren't just "the internet." Those are the leading medical schools in the world telling you that you don't get the flu from the vaccine. And if you still don't want to believe that then there's not much else to be said. Hopefully others will read them and understand.
But, at the risk of being rated redundant: Again, the point of flu vaccines (as with most all vaccines) is not that your body begins multiplying the virus - the virus cannot multiply in the forms that are in vaccines, which is what "inactive" means. (One exception: Oral Polio Vaccine, a live attenuated vaccine and not inactive - it is known that a very small number of people do in fact develop polio from OPV in far fewer numbers than the live virus spreads. Which is why it is not used in the United States and the shot form of polio vaccine is inactivated). Instead, just the small amount of inactivated virus in the vaccine trains your body's active immune system to be prepared to fight the real live virus if it is encountered. Influenza mutates very quickly and there are multiple strains, which is why it is possible to get a flu vaccine and still actually get the flu later... just not from the vaccine.
But all that said, THANK YOU for getting vaccinated!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @06:49AM
or his body simply had a similar immune reaction to actually having the flu, but without actually getting the flu.
Does one actually contract tetanus after getting a DTAP or tetanus booster shot and subsequently enjoying a sore shoulder for a week to 10 days afterwards? No?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:48AM (7 children)
Honest question here.
What will you do if you are in a serious car accident, and wake up in a hospital, having been operated on?
I am guessing you could face a bill of several hundreds of thousands in that case. Is that scenario possible?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:56AM (5 children)
Our taxes already paid for emergency care to stabilize anyone in that situation, there is no need to pay anything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act [wikipedia.org]
But, if it was a relevant issue.
1) It will be much cheaper than whatever "chargemaster' BS is on the bill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargemaster [wikipedia.org]
2) You (or your parents) would have that much saved up that much from what you've been giving away to the insurance company instead.
However, what I would like is a super high deductible (like $100k) but low premium (like $100/yr) plan. That seems like a legitimate use for insurance.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday November 21 2019, @02:31AM (1 child)
What if the hospital sends you a bill for (say) $250,000?
If you, or your parents haven't managed to save that much, and the hospital claims it is not covered?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @04:04AM
Your question is already answered. There is zero chance and no need to pay that. Your local taxes are already paying the hospital to deal with mandated emergency treatmentfor anyone, including yourself. Further, no one ever pays what is on the bill except schmucks, it is meant as a starting point for negotiations. The insurance company would likely end up paying $25k or so.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:17PM
For most people, most medical expenses are at the end of life so you're basically proposing a life insurance deal. Across an entire population and not individuals I don't think you can get hundreds of thousands of life insurance for $100. For individuals like 20-something new parents sure maybe at 20 year term. I'd guess maybe $100/month for life insurance like that?
(Score: 1) by Afty on Thursday November 21 2019, @01:08PM
EMTALA does not do what you think it does.
You state "Our taxes already paid for emergency care to stabilize anyone" - that's not only not true, but the wikipedia article you linked to explicitly says that it's not true.
Furthermore, EMTALA doesn't mean you don't have to pay. You will still be charged for the car, they will send you bills, and can send collections to get their money for up to three years after you're discharged.
The only way you could have to "not pay" would be if you have no assets they could seize to pay off your debt.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday November 27 2019, @07:45PM
I don't think you understand how that works. The law just says they can't roll you back out on the street. They will still bill you for the service and if you don't pay, you get to be dunned by collectors forever more (and possibly taken to court for garnishment or other adverse actions). Our taxes have in no way already paid to cover emergency medical care.
Note, in some places the state or local government may have an arrangement with some or all of the hospitals in the area to provide more help, but that varies greatly by location and has nothing to do with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @01:02AM
Not only that but... Even if you have healthcare insurance, there's patients getting treatment at their providers facility, but later getting full price doctor bills because the doctor that treated you wasn't on that healthplan. And nobody told you beforehand.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday November 21 2019, @01:20AM (4 children)
The one time I got the flu shot, I felt like CRAAAAP aaaallll winter long: havent had one since and havent felt that bad since.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @03:15AM (3 children)
I started getting annual flu shots again about 6 years ago after catching a nasty flu from work that put me in bed for a week and took months to get back to 100% the previous year. The first year I got a flu shot, I got a similar off feeling (but nowhere near as bad as the real thing) that lasted about 4 months afterward. However, subsequent years I have not gotten it at all. I think it might be a combination nocebo effect, legitimate illness, and novelty of the symptoms together, as I've discussed it with multiple people and everyone who gets the shot regularly doesn't get it, but most people I ask who started within their adult memory report it for the first year but less so the others -- if at all.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @04:01AM (2 children)
It is because the sicker you get the stronger your immune response. Your bad case of the flu apparently imparted a long lasted generalized immunity to various flu strains to you. It has nothing to do with the shots.
It's the same reason why immunity after measles is lifelong, but immunity after the vaccines wanes.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 21 2019, @03:22PM
Because?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @10:56PM
The Measles leaves lifelong immunity after getting it, compared to the vaccine, because once you get measles you have it, forever. If your body manages to fight of the measles and other secondary infections, you are still stuck with the latent infection. Every so often it flairs up and your body has to beat it back into remission. If it wasn't for that cycle of latency and reactivation, your immunity to Measles would wane like it does for every other pathogen it doesn't have repeated contact with.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mechanicjay on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:16AM (1 child)
I was actually thinking about something similar this weekend due to a banner hanging on the front of the local Safeway. It read something like "Free Flu Shot with most insurance plans. Enjoy 10% off your next grocery trip with any immunization!"
The only thing I could think of was, given the generally razor thin margins in grocery stores, how much of a killing they must be making on those shots to offer a blanket 10% off your next shopping trip.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:23AM
I also noted that the same advertisement at a local Safeway.
Some inside ball -
Safeway has been culling staff at their pharmacies that do not perform well in pushing Flu shots. At least locally the number of hours a Pharmacist and their techs get to work is directly proportional to the number of Flu shots they sell. Regardless of wait times on other business, you are to ensure that the Flu shots que is processed as quick as possible because they are a higher margin. Non-compliance results in significant hour reductions until employees re-prioritize.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:19AM (2 children)
Why don't I see TV commercials, like those of the old fart throwing a football through a tire hanging off a tree with the hot 20 something clapping and smiling?
This is just a microcosm as to how fucked up the American health care system is.
/ then again, at my age boinking a hot 20 year old sounds good
// 2 weeks puking for 10 minutes, yeah, I could do that
/// Good thing I'm divorced, or I would be by next month.
Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday November 21 2019, @01:23AM (1 child)
Boinking a hot 20 year old sounds good at ANY age, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Thursday November 21 2019, @02:59AM
But what if you're not his type?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by SemperOSS on Thursday November 21 2019, @06:24AM
In the UK you can privately receive a non-subsidised flu shot for less than £10 (almost USD 13), i.e. roughly half the cheapest price quoted in the article. People with certain afflictions (like diabetes and asthma) receive it for free on the NHS. This once again shows how expensive the American health care system is compared to that of other countries.
I don't need a signature to draw attention to myself.
Maybe I should add a sarcasm warning now and again?
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Thursday November 21 2019, @08:09AM
Insurance is required to cover it. So why wouldn't the provider jack up the price? As long as they don't go too much higher than the other providers at any given time (wait for them to catch up first...) then the insurance company has no reason to drop them either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @09:19AM (1 child)
In a free (free market). A seller charges whatever the market will pay.
I.E. working as advertised, welcome to America!!!!!
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday November 23 2019, @08:02AM
In a HEALTHY market, the market will pay an amount that approaches the marginal cost of production. We have so many unhealthy markets that people forget that part.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:29PM (3 children)
My understanding of the math is a flu shot giving nurse might get $30/hr
Now if the nurse works an 8 hour shift and gives 90 shots, that's a shot every 5 minutes which is impressive and the labor cost will be a mere $3 or so.
Now lets assume that it snows and everyone older than 50 stays home freaked out by fox news panic reports (although snow is not unusual where I live) so only 10 people show up during the nurses shift. Thats about $30 of labor cost per shot.
You'll get aggressive customer service arguments about the shot. If you don't have enough nurses sitting around scrolling facebook for 6 hours per day doing nothing, then during the rush hour at end of shift from 5-7pm you might only give like 20 shots and the labor cost will be huge. Possibly parents won't immunize their kids after school if the wait time from 3pm to 5pm is over ten minutes (kids are not patient). More nurses will result in more wasted time but far more immunizations.
Note that in far left communities like Reddit, for whatever weird religious reasons, vaccinations have turned into a religious obligation with predictable opinions about those non-immunized. The point in bringing this up is the clinc (flu, not STD?) next to the hipster bar is going to do booming business with low labor cost per shot, but less insane areas will do less booming business with higher labor cost per shot.
Also correct for time. My old bank (moved to credit union long ago) had limited office hours so if they tried to pimp flu shots at a bank they simply can't dump as many labor hours as a 24x7 supermarket could. You can't lose $30/hr at 3am on labor at a bank when the bank isn't open, but you COULD waste that labor money at a 24x7 grocery or walmart or whatever.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 21 2019, @03:35PM
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday November 21 2019, @10:29PM
Also the vaccine itself has a cost to it. IIRC (and I could well be wrong...) it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $12ish per dose. And you need to buy 'enough'... how many doses do you get stuck with after the fact and you end up eating the cost on them? And/or run out and you have to send people elsewhere....
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday November 22 2019, @12:55AM
At a pharmacy the negotiations over the sale of a flu shot are done by technicians or cashiers who make 12-19/hour depending on experience and location, they do this while taking care of other duties.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam