Posted on 01/03/2014 9:04:30 AM PST by gooblah
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-02/another-problem-obamacare-won-t-solve-health-costs.html
Another classic Socialist/big government scenario: the problem government was supposed to fix isn’t fixed and in fact is made worse. That’s because the problem is government itself. The purported solution is actually the problem.
An aspirin in a hospital??? How does $30 sound...probably too cheap.
Then we have lifesaving drugs like Gleevec. Used to treat cdertain cancers, Gleevec entered the market in 2001 at a price of about $30,000 a year in the United States. Novartis argues that prices reflect the high cost of research and the value of a drug to patients.
Since then, the US price has tripled. (It's -- obviously -- a lot cheaper everywhere else on the planet, including Canada.)
OF COURSE Obamacare won't solve health care costs. It will make them go even HIGHER!
“Gleevec entered the market in 2001 at a price of about $30,000 a year in the United States. Novartis argues that prices reflect the high cost of research and the value of a drug to patients. Since then, the US price has tripled. (It’s — obviously — a lot cheaper everywhere else on the planet, including Canada.)”
The major reason for the high cost of drugs in the U.S. is the fixed cost of drugs in nearly every other country. For example, the UK expressly limits entry of many new drugs unless those drugs are priced very low (within the NHS budget). Pharmaceutical companies make up their overseas losses by effectively gouging the U.S. payors. Possibly at some point widespread cost fixing and contracting with insurance companies within the U.S. will force lower prices, with a resultant hit to U.S. R&D and innovation.
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