Had to go to the drug store for a pretty common drug to protect against infection after a procedure, something not covered by insurance and the price for 10 pills was a staggering $350. Not poor, but the cost - benefit risk ratio could not justify the purchase.
If I had gotten an infection, the costs would have been steep, in the thousands of dollars at least and possibly tens of thousands dollars in worst case, but the costs would have been covered by insurance ( actually by the rest of Americans)
In Canada, that same prescription would have cost about $25.
The reason is cost shifting of the true cost of drug production to the American people.
We Americans subsidize the low drug prices for the rest of the world
First World countries like Canada, and Europe mandate low drug prices by law to support their socialist economies and force drug companies to sell their products at artificially low prices so the drug companies jack up the retail prices of the same drugs here to recover the true manufacturing costs
We here in America pick up the tab for low price drugs for the rest of the with astronomical prices.
The drug companies also sell their drugs in poor third world countries for much reduced prices for the simple reason that very few could afford the drugs - the price I was quoted for that common drug would have , for a one year supply of the product, would have exceeded the yearly average income in 75% of the rest of world
This cost shifting to the US and especially the uninsured, is obscene and it is solely due to government policy and intense lobbying by drug companies.
The real solution is the law put forth by Steve Scaliese that mandates that drug companies charge American consumers the same prices they charge in Canada and the EU
You are so right. GoodRx analysis of cash prices for asthma inhalers shows that prices have climbed about 35% since 2013, from an average price of around $280 in 2013 to more than $380 today.
The average cash price for one inhaler of Advair, a leading medication for asthma, increased from $316 in 2013 to $496 in 2018 – a 56% increase. The average cash price for Flovent, another widely prescribed brand, increased 41% between 2013 and 2018, from $207 to $292.
And those are prices from 2018.