so long as there are RATS still breathing, never...
Posted on 10/31/2011 7:52:30 AM PDT by Beaten Valve
Using the legal force of an executive order, President Obama is taking action on the health care front as part of his pressure on Congress for action on his jobs plan.
White House officials say at a midday signing ceremony in the Oval Office, the president will address price gouging and the availability of prescription drugs. He will also endorse what he describes as bipartisan legislation awaiting action.
“The shortage of prescription drugs drives up costs, leaves consumers vulnerable to price gouging and threatens our health and safety,” an administration official says.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Wow, if ever there was a stupid argument... Here is another one for you.
F-22 fighter jet plans: 5 CDs
Taxpayer price: $10 billion
Cost of CDs: $2
Percent markup: Astronomical
You are paying for the R&D work, not just of the product, but of the products that didn't pan out.
And if you don't like it. Don't buy it.
College costs up 900% since 1978.
I wonder when the college deans will be under the hot lights being grilled by Congress like oil executives.
so long as there are RATS still breathing, never...
Wonder what he is really doing? You can be sure it is not good for the American people.
Yes we do, but our mark up is not 30,000% I can tell you that. The profit margin for distributors is between 40%-50% and for a store that purchases directly from us, their profit margin could be 100%. A little different from 30,000% I would say. I don’t understand you “horse (sh!t) relief” comment. Are you familiar with the product line or are you just spouting off?
“Didn’t the Clinton admin. drive out drug companies from the US? There’s only like two left. My understanding was there were 19 major drug companies at the start of the Clinton’s reign and only two are left.”
You’ve got that right. Hillary was behind it. There was such a shortage of flu shots that year that many people were unable to receive them. We must NEVER FORGET.
I’m guessing he’s getting ready to shake down the pharmaceutical industry for campaign contributions.
I don't know what you consider a drug company, but there are numerous drug companies left in the United States. Merck, Pfizer, J&J, Lilly, Roche, Abbot, and a host of bio techs remain in the US.
Your post is so short-sighted, I hardly know where to begin.
When you purchase a pharmaceutical, you're not just paying for the "active ingredients." For most products, you're paying for years and years of research, clinical trials, and other operations in the pharma company developing the drug.
So, don't come to a thread like this, telling people "what they need to understand..." You're not qualified to speak on the subject.
Never heard of research investment, huh? Or testing and registration expense? Nor, evidently, are you aware of overhead, packaging, sales and marketing expense or any other business expenses.
Obviously, you know nothing of accounting. Nor anything about the pharmaceutical industry.
Any government effort to increase supply and drive down costs will inevitably result in even greater shortages and higher prices.
Remember how government "fixed" cable pricing? And ATM fees? And made homes "affordable"? Along with college?
If Nexium cost half as much, people would likely buy 2-3 times as much of it. Instead they tend to only use it in emergencies, and not use it for more than half the time they could use its benefits.
Don’t jump to conclusions here. We own our own business. I know what things cost. We also work very closely with our chemists. I know what things cost. Pick a medical product and price it out at Costco....you’ll be amazed at the difference in cost.
ABC radio news refers to this as “executive action” , which I’m told is somehow different than an Executive “Order”.
All I know is that it appears to be the the new way of doing things and we don’t need Congress any more.
Then you know that calculating a mark-up on the cost of active ingredients alone is misleading as hell.
The cost of "active" ingredients in a fountain Coke is about 3 cents. You pay 99 cents. Does that mean that Coke's profit is 3300%?
Omeprazole/Prilosec OTC is cheaper and works much the same. The root cause of countless health problems is eating too much.
RC, sometimes when you find yourself in an intellectual hole, perhaps you should stop digging.
You made a fallacious statement about the costs of pharmaceutical products, and you follow it up with an equally hollow one, but I'll humor you. You initially implied that pharma companies were responsible for the high overhead, but in your latest example (Costco), you imply that the retailer is responsible for the markup.
You also claim to know "what things cost," but you remain stubborn to the fact that much of the cost for pharmaceuticals lies in the R&D costs. The material costs are miniscule in comparison.
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