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Utah cuts Healthcare costs by Flying Employees to Mexico for Prescriptions

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posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:24 AM
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I also have a sister in law who is a doctor who forgot her prescriptions while on vacation in Egypt in the Fall of 2018. She was eventually was able to get them filled in Egypt, for pennies on the US dollar. The cost was so low she thought they had made a mistake. They didn't. Its just the good ole USA citizen subsidizing the entire world off our backs.

Sure, lets make Amerika great again. Sorry it will never happen. These other stupid countries need to keep the USA from failing as we are their cash cow. Like the "minimum" eight weeks of vacation in the EU and its transferable. So you get that? I don't.

Here's the story about Utah.

Utah cuts healthcare costs by flying employees to Mexico for prescriptions


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.



edit on 20-2-2020 by Waterglass because: typo

edit on 20-2-2020 by Waterglass because: added



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:27 AM
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Be even cheaper if they pay for one flight of a Mexican dealer to smuggle the narcotics up to them.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:30 AM
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a reply to: Waterglass

Kind of like when Bernie Sanders brought Americans to Canada to get their prescriptions.

Not to take this off topic (this is related)... but the far left and bleeding heart liberals who are also hardcore "climate change" proponents seem OK with citizens finding creative ways to stick it to big business and find ways to save money, but are being hypocrites when they don't call out situations like this for their carbon footprint

I know this isn't a story about politics or "the left" but I saw an important parallel I wanted to point out.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:31 AM
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a reply to: Waterglass

It will be interesting to see what happens when one of these people die from a contaminated or defective knockoff drug.

Lawsuit city.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:37 AM
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The problem is the US subsidizes all the other countries. The pharma companies can't charge market prices in other countries, they just jack up the price in the US to offset the losses.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:45 AM
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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.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:46 AM
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I have a business associate from Morocco. When he needs dental work done, he flies his entire family home to Morocco, visits his family there, has a grand old time, and sees his dentist. The money he saves by seeing the dentist in Morocco pays for the rest of the trip...



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 08:56 AM
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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.


The profit motive is why they can develop so many miracle drugs. It can cost like $1 billion or more and decades to develop a new drug. The company needs to make back their investment plus some. This of course assumes that investment even results in a marketable drug.

The issue is that some countries set arbitrary prices for drugs that are not based on the cost of development and other business analytics. As such, the US winds up subsidizing those countries because that is the only way the company can make their money back.

Also keep in mind, many drugs are developed for relatively small populations of people. Are you going to spend a billion to develop a drug for a medical issue that affects maybe 10,000 people per year? Do some basic math and then tell us what you think a fair cost of the drug should be....



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:20 AM
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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?



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:23 AM
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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 prescribed 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.
edit on 2/20/2020 by Xcalibur254 because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:24 AM
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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?


No idea on your question but that wasn't what I was talking about.

An employee of the state of Utah can file a lawsuit against the state.
Forcing employees to get their drugs in a foreign country that's over ran by corruption is a huge civil suit waiting to happen.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:29 AM
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a reply to: Bluntone22

Yes, yes i wasn't think about that so yes as in sure!



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:32 AM
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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.


$1 billion is $1 billion regardless of the company's "home base". It still cost $1 billion to develop the drug. The math does not change regardless if the company is French, US, or whoever. The company still needs to recoup the cost of development. If their home country won't allow them to sell at X prices, they sell in the US to recoup the cost. Again, the US is subsidizing them.

The issue with generics is intellectual property. If you invested $1 billion to develop a miracle drug and then a competing company essentially copies your work without the investment, you'd be pissed. This is why the US has strong IP laws, otherwise, no company would want to take the risk of their work and investment is not protected.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:35 AM
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a reply to: Waterglass

This is what happens when people decide that healthcare is not a right, and control our ability to nurse and nurture our own bodies with the bounty of the earth given freely by Nature and Nature's God.

No one needs to tell me that I have no right to another person's labor. Of course I don't. And that's NOT what I'm saying. The problem is the laws and regulations that prohibit me from providing my own healthcare by myself and for myself -- with or without other consenting adults.

Stating that we do not have the absolute and inalienable right to healthcare is effectively denying our absolute and inalienable right to life itself. We all have the right to protect, defend and save our lives from illness and injury. To say otherwise is about as draconian and tyrannical as it gets. It takes a mighty big ego (not to mention sadistic streak) to have the balls to tell someone they can only nurse and nurture their health and life if someone else says so... usually based upon how much $$$ you have to fork over.

Taxpayers pay millions -- if not billions -- of dollars to fund the research and development of medications only for government to grant a patent -- complete control -- to a for-profit corporation who then make millions off the sick and ailing who need it.

This is not what the Founding Fathers intended when setting up patents and copyrights and so on. But, for that matter, neither are today's corporations what was intended when setting up incorporation charters. These measures were intended to foster and promote innovation and productivity for the benefit of the masses. Not just a chosen few.

Unless and until we declare and codify our absolute and inalienable right to nurse and nurture our own bodies -- "healthcare" -- the problems will only worsen as the chosen few find more and more creative (and cruel) ways in which to profit from our human frailty.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:44 AM
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a reply to: Edumakated

But we're still paying way more for generics than the rest of the world. Why are we paying more for a Teva produced drug, a company that did not spend a billion dollars and years of R&D, than anywhere else in the world?

Why are insurance and pharmaceutical companies making ridiculous profit off of a drug that costs less than a penny to produce like amoxicillin?

Why are we paying significantly more for pravastatin than Japan, even though it is a drug developed in Japan?

Why should an insurance company make a decent profit when a specific drug is dispensed, but the pharmacy that dispenses it is in the hole for thousands of dollars?
edit on 2/20/2020 by Xcalibur254 because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:44 AM
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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.


The law of unintended consequences, eh?

Which always happens when people do the wrong thing for the right reason... or the right thing for the wrong reason... good laws and good practice come from doing the right thing for the right reasons.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 09:48 AM
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a reply to: Xcalibur254

Because someone decided we don't have a right to healthcare... other folks passed bad laws to restrict and control our access to healthcare -- including medications... and bad laws are enforced with the barrrel of a government gun.

Quite simple actually. The guns are on their side.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 10:29 AM
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Same meds, same producer of the meds, one quarter of the cost.

The Pharma companies get away this because our government lets them. It is also cheaper in Canada

Another thing, our government supposedly made a deal with the Pharma companies to reimburse them for the cost of Medicare and medicaid covered meds years ago, allowing the Pharma companies to increase costs to regular people to cover the costs. That relates to higher premiums for our health insurances.

So, all of the people are now paying way more and the government is trapped, the Pharma companies will slam the politicians if they try to lower the costs. They have the people in DC over a barrel, do not expect the cost to be reduced much. The devil recruits people and uses their misdeeds to control them, the word Devil is nothing more than another name for a Deceiver. Not do not confuse the Devil and Satan, who is an angel who came to earth long ago, the Devil is more of an anti-christ individual.



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 10:47 AM
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a reply to: Boadicea

you may have the right to life but healthcare isn't life and as long as you are healthy and able to work, your healthcare is your own responsibility, why should others have to shoulder your burden and limit their right to prosperity when you can pay for yourself?
we already have socialized healthcare for people that can't work so why should people who can take care of their own healthcare costs be given such services? all that's going to happen is a decline in care for those who really need it, and for what? to satisfy the selfishness of lazy people that refuse to be responsible for their own life?

America is founded on the idea of freedom through personal responsibility not freedom through dependence on and bondage to others, because that's not freedom.
edit on 20-2-2020 by namehere because: (no reason given)

edit on 20-2-2020 by namehere because: (no reason given)

edit on 20-2-2020 by namehere because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 20 2020 @ 11:05 AM
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originally posted by: jjkenobi
Be even cheaper if they pay for one flight of a Mexican dealer to smuggle the narcotics up to them.


Wait until I tell you about the war on drugs.




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