Review: "States Deny Pricey Hepatitis C Drugs to Most Medicaid Patients" – NPR
Here's yet another opportunity to see just how ridiculous our health system is. This was an article written by Jake Harper, published a couple days ago. Quick summary: a private company uses its money to make a new medication. They get it through a government process to sell to the public. They charge whatever amount they want, which is within their right. The main buyers (insurance companies, Medicaid managed care companies, and the government) then have to figure out how mu
Review: "Runaway Drug Prices" – The New York Times
I'm so blessed to have friends who love to read. Why yes, I did see this article from The New York Times Editorial Board. My response: Yup, a drug that costs $200 one day can easily cost $1300 the next because pharmacy companies can change whatever they want. And patients can't do anything about it because it's essentially a closed market. Thus, I say open the market up. There are equally effective medications being created overseas at a quarter of the price. If you want pres
Q: Then who's going to pay for medicines?
"The costs of medications are so high. Who's going to pay for people to get their meds?" This question was posed to me by someone who currently works as a nurse in a psychiatric ER. One of the reasons medication and medical device costs are so high is because Big Pharma and Big Devices drive up the prices. We know from looking at other countries that the very same medications and technologies have huge markups here comparatively. Why is that? It's partly because we are requir