My response to E's e-mail:
JCB: He'd just need to make a little less money or make some of it under the table.
JCB: It's unclear to me how the cost increases we're experiencing in the health-care sector have any connection with the fact that drugs can be patented. Many other non-health-care-related technologies are patented yet affordable. How can that be the case if patent protection is the cause of the problem? Health-care costs are skyrocketing across the board, not just in the area of patented drugs. The true cause of the problem is that health care is one of the most heavily regulated and socialized industries in the country. Inflation is significantly lower in the less-regulated industries, such as computers and veterinary care. In fact, we may even have negative inflation for computers. Can you think of a single lightly-regulated industry in which inflation is anywhere near as bad as it is for health care? If you can, I'd be interested to know what it is.
JCB: Canada would be way down on my list of places in which to grow old. Canadians with life-threatening conditions are forced to wait months for surgery, chemotherapy, etc. Sick Canadians who can afford it often come to the US for treatment.
E: I got [my prescription] filled tonight which cost me $50 (too much, I will have to investigate), but get this, the receipt says that insurance was billed $1330!! With that and the co-pay, $1380 total. Un-freaking-believable. And that's just a one month supply. $16,560/yr. What in hell would people w/o insurance (but an income) or who had crappy insurance do? I [previously] got free goods b/c I was unemployed. But consider some single dude who worked at construction and who had no insurance, but still pulled down maybe 28K annually. By the limits of the Glaxo program he would be SOL. Step up to the plate and show us that $17K buddy.
JCB: He'd just need to make a little less money or make some of it under the table.
E: The drug companies are always whining about how they need their patent protection and the resulting high prices in order to recoup the cost of development and bringing a drug to market. So OK, I'll pretend to accept that for the moment. THEN, when their patent actually runs out, after something like 18 years I think, and when they've presumably made a nice profit from the drug, what do they do? They repackage it slightly (like this Lamictal, which is now generic), in my case into an extended-release package, and re-patent it. The XR [extended release] stuff is the exact same drug as the original, it just dissolves differently. $17K/yr.
JCB: It's unclear to me how the cost increases we're experiencing in the health-care sector have any connection with the fact that drugs can be patented. Many other non-health-care-related technologies are patented yet affordable. How can that be the case if patent protection is the cause of the problem? Health-care costs are skyrocketing across the board, not just in the area of patented drugs. The true cause of the problem is that health care is one of the most heavily regulated and socialized industries in the country. Inflation is significantly lower in the less-regulated industries, such as computers and veterinary care. In fact, we may even have negative inflation for computers. Can you think of a single lightly-regulated industry in which inflation is anywhere near as bad as it is for health care? If you can, I'd be interested to know what it is.
E: I think Canada is the place to get old in. I still haven't heard back from them on my Permanent Resident application. They must have quite a backlog of Americans.
JCB: Canada would be way down on my list of places in which to grow old. Canadians with life-threatening conditions are forced to wait months for surgery, chemotherapy, etc. Sick Canadians who can afford it often come to the US for treatment.
"JCB: He'd just need to make a little less money or make some of it under the table."
ReplyDeleteIs that a joke? Seems pretty callous.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Tzippi!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a joke, but neither did I intend it to be callous. I greatly sympathize with someone placed in such a position due to the dysfunctional nature of our existing health-care system. I hate to advocate breaking the law, but given the limited choices available to the person in the example, I probably would have to advise him to make slightly less money or hide a small portion of his income rather than go without needed medication.