3 ms·
> I'm sure there's some shady big pharma economics behind why these exist in the first place The co-pay is designed to make you share in the pain of the sky-hi
by bradleyjg 8y ago
> I'm sure there's some shady big pharma economics behind why these exist in the first place
The co-pay is designed to make you share in the pain of the sky-high costs the drug manufacturer charges the insurance company. This has two benefits—1) you are only going to get it if you really need it 2) maybe you’ll lobby your congressperson to rein in monopolist pricing.
By giving you a coupon there’s no pain sharing and those benefits are lost. Sure you’ll pay higher premiums, either directly or in reduced wage gains, but that’s defuse and indirect, so far less likely to drive behavior.
- dawhizkid 8y agoMakes sense
- zdragnar 8y agoBiologic drugs are grown, not manufactured. Mine should be around 4k / dose; insurance won't cover it, so the drug company only charges me I think a $25 copay. Fwiw, the insurance would have covered older alternatives, but the potential side effects on those are worse than the cure.
- bradleyjg 8y agoShould be in what sense? Is that the marginal cost to manufacturer a dose?
- zdragnar 8y agoShould be in the sense that I don't recall the specific number, only that it was around $4k. Given the decreased consistency in the process (living things vs. mixing chemicals), I imagine a fairly good chunk of that 4k is also marginal cost to the manufacturer. Everything from research, to scaling up production, to storage and shipping (spoils at room temp) becomes more expensive.