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Yeah this is true. The cost of generics is so low but in the United States it remains quite expensive if you don’t have insurance.
by drewmassey 8y ago
Yeah this is true. The cost of generics is so low but in the United States it remains quite expensive if you don’t have insurance.
- metildaa 8y agoEven with insurance, the cost of essential drugs is too high. Our whole healthcare system consists of the care providers billing crazy, unjustifiable amounts to Insurance, followed by insurers paying out a percentage of that. Showing prices up front would be the very least we could do to start to clean up this fraudulent billing mess that is healthcare here in the US.
- chimeracoder 8y ago> Showing prices up front would be the very least we could do to start to clean up this fraudulent billing mess that is healthcare here in the US. It would, but Medicare would never agree to that, because it would cut off a major source of indirect revenue for them.
- wmeredith 8y agoMedicare is not a decision making body. What are you talking about?
- chimeracoder 8y ago> Medicare is not a decision making body. What are you talking about? CMS absolutely is a "decision making body", with direct authority over a whole number of matters. But even beyond its office authority granted by Congress, Medicare (both the people who run it and the people who generally support it) are incredibly influential as well, and they would use that influence to block any policy that would affect Medicare so negatively (even if it would be good for the public at large)
- chimeracoder 8y ago> but in the United States it remains quite expensive if you don’t have insurance. Not really - Gilead provides assistance programs for people who have private insurance, for people on public insurance, and for people who are uninsured (there are three separate assistance programs). The plan for people who have private insurance is the best (you end up paying $0/year for PrEP), and the plan for people who are uninsured is pretty good (not $0/year, but still pretty affordable).
- drewmassey 8y agoAh perhaps I have stale information then. Last I heard retail truvada will run you north of $1,500 per month in the us.
- chimeracoder 8y ago> Ah perhaps I have stale information then. Last I heard retail truvada will run you north of $1,500 per month in the us. The sticker price is meaningless. Because of the assistance programs, nobody needs to pay it, whether you're on private insurance or uninsured.
- aerotwelve 8y agoSerious question: what's the point of the sticker price then? Surely someone must be paying it, right? If not, why not lower it for -- at a minimum -- a PR boost?
- brazzledazzle 8y agoIt might be used as a starting point for negotiation with private insurers.
- barry-cotter 8y agoThe sticker price is negotiating leverage for use against organisations with money, the insurance companies and Medicaid and Medicare. They don’t pay the sticker price either but they come much closer because they’re price insensitive. All costs get passed on, on average to the actuarial customer.