Funny how this happened right after Obamacare took effect.
Extortion. Thanks, Obola, for the Anarchist Care Plan.
What moron can’t figure out that when the consumer has no stake in the cost of a good or service because SOMEONE ELSE IS PAYING FOR IT WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S MONEY... the consumer simply doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the price.
I swear we are all effing doomed.
For the record, my coinsurance is 20 percent of the total price.
Of course, this is still not as much of an increase as with the drugs mentioned in the article...
FYI
I found this when hubby’s blood pressure meds weren’t available....
http://www.ashp.org/menu/DrugShortages/CurrentShortages
This is just my guess here, but they are doing one of two possible things:
1) Pre-emptively increasing prices to buffer against almost-certain punitive tax hikes, fees and penalties coming under the full implementation of ObamaCare, or
2) Raising prices because of greed knowing that Government’s job 1 will be to get that subsidized patient’s medicine to him, damn the cost - let the insurer pay for it.
No matter the reason; each is good to the government because it will create anxiety, strife, lack of confidence, etc. and lay the foundation for single-payer (aka, Government Health Care).
Obama lied, Americans died.
bmfl
There are several factors at play here. First and foremost, we must all realize that the stage is set for “Nationalized Health Care”...one size fits all, one payor, one source, one way in and one way out. As the Pharmaceutical Companies were at lavish retreats, reviewing long term strategies, budgets etc, it became clear that expensive drugs were not going to be paid for under a single payor scheme.
Exhaustive analysis determined which product lines were looking viable and what was a loser. Long story short, the emergence of ObamaCare prompted sell offs of loser drugs to third world manufacturers. This means new drug applications, FDA plant closures for various infractions, raw material scarcity and import and export issues and delays.
We now have unprecedented shortages of old time drugs. Normal Saline is in a short situation.( We do realize that 70% of this planet is salt water right?) Rahm “the Ballerina” Emmanuel once stated “Never let a crisis go to waste”. What we are seeing here, now, is a perfect storm of Government hand tooled crisis and Cloward-Piven rolled into one. The administration is just waiting it out for the masses to scream for “government assistance”. It’s all part of the plan. Sadly, I’m probably not even scratching the surface of the complete depravity of the plan.
Generic Lipitor has gone up to ~$20 for 30 pills. Was around $2.00 a year ago.
It’s Obamacare. Someone has to pay for all the meds going to people who aren’t paying.
If there are only two or three generic competitors and they are all jacking up prices obscenely, there is market collusion—in this case, price fixing.
Without knowing any specific pharma-related law, it looks to me that not only Obama’s administration, but individual states (and even individuals) have standing to file against it:
In the United States, price fixing can be prosecuted as a criminal federal offense under section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.[2]
Criminal prosecutions may only be handled by the U.S. Department of Justice, but the Federal Trade Commission also has jurisdiction for civil antitrust violations. Many state attorneys general also bring antitrust cases and have antitrust offices, such as Virginia, New York, and California.
Private individuals or organizations may file lawsuits for triple damages for antitrust violations, and depending on the law, recover attorneys fees and costs expended on prosecution of a case.[3][4][5]
Under American law, exchanging prices among competitors can also violate the antitrust laws. This includes exchanging prices with either the intent to fix prices or if the exchange affects the prices individual competitors set. Proof that competitors have shared prices can be used as part of the evidence of an illegal price fixing agreement.[6] Experts generally advise that competitors avoid even the appearance of agreeing on price.[7]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing#Legal_status_in_the_United_States_and_Canada
Abbott and Mylan should not have been allowed to merge without divesting their thyroid business—not sure what happened, but the generic prices have been jacked up there.
Here’s where Mylan was granted the right to make a generic version of Synthroid only a decade ago:
Also, it sounds like some of those profs quoted are in the pockets of the pharma industry.
Enjoy your socialized medicine. Freeloaders thought somebody else was going to pay for their fair share. LOL
From the article: “Shortages of raw materials frequently are cited as a reason for higher drug prices. Joyce said the difficulty of knowing what’s actually happening throughout a drug’s supply chain, which often begins in China or India, makes it hard to know whether a shortage is the result of deliberate moves.”
This is a wonderful example of how meddling by politicians who have little understanding about what they are making policy about, and who have no courage in defending American intellectual property, can damage an entire industry - and hurt the American consumer.
Our R&D, taxpayer funded and within the American pharmaceutical industry, has led to a vast number of the drugs that are now therapeutic mainstays.
While these are still under US patent, foreign countries (Canada included) extort American pharmaceutical companies, telling them that if they don’t sell them the drug at a low enough price they will just make it themselves and ignore the US patent. So the companies capitulate (it’s cheaper to do so than to fight), and to make up for the lost potential revenue they increase the prices in the US.
When these drugs come off patent, generic pharmaceutical firms - with either their headquarters, manufacturing, or both located in other countries - begin making the drugs abroad and thus the American pharmaceutical industry and the American taxpayers and economy are again screwed.
Deal with the current administration of thieves to keep the drug companies on board.