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A health insurer in Utah is seeking to reduce prescription drug costs by flying state employees to Mexico, where they can collect medications at a fraction of the US cost. The year-old programme involves about 10 state employees. The cost savings are so large that the insurance program can pay for each patient’s flight, give them a $500-per-trip bonus and still save tens of thousands of dollars. One participant, Ann Lovell, a 62-year-old teacher, said she had saved as much as $2,400 by travelling from Salt Lake City to San Diego and then crossing the border, in order to refill a prescription for arthritis medication.
originally posted by: Xcalibur254
This stems from our for-profit insurance focused healthcare system. Big Pharma and the insurance companies collaborate in jacking up the price we pay for medication to maximize their profits.
To make things worse, the actual healthcare providers don't actually get a cut of the profits. For example, most pharmacies operate at a loss, that's why so many now exist inside grocery stores and independent pharmacies now focus on compounding and medical supplies.
Tying the entirety of our healthcare to a for-profit industry that doesn't actually provide a service has only served to screw us over. It has nothing to do with "subsidizing" the healthcare of other countries. It's because we naively thought that major corporations would actually put the welfare of the population over their bottom line.
originally posted by: Waterglass
a reply to: Bluntone22
A foreign national can sue a Mexican sovereign organization? Did they get a warranty with the prescription? What about boob jobs down under?
originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: Edumakated
Only about 50% of drugs are currently developed in the US. If we look back to the 80s(which are now some of the most pact drugs today) the US and Japan were both developing around 30% of drugs.
So even just looking at that, why are we the only country "subsidizing" costs even though plenty of other countries are developing drugs?
It gets even more ridiculous to make the claim that our drug prices are higher because we develop the drugs when you start looking into who is actually funding the development.
For example, Roche, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has their R&D facility in the US but they're based in Switzerland. The same goes for Sanofi in France.
So while most drugs are being developed in the US, they're being funded by foreign companies. So why do are we paying so much more for drugs than Switzerland and France even though companies from those countries are actually funding drug development?
And that's before we even get to generic drugs. Why do I have to pay more for a drug, produced by a company based in India that had no hand in the R&D, than anywhere else in the world?
The answer is because we have allowed our healthcare system to be dictated by a for-profit industry that doesn't actually do anything except act as a middle man.
originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: Waterglass
I know this isn't a story about politics or "the left" but I saw an important parallel I wanted to point out.