> Well, thanks to the government, there's socialized food for those in need, in the form of food banks and SNAP. Yes. Why can't we have the same for prescripti

> Well, thanks to the government, there's socialized food for those in need, in the form of food banks and SNAP. Yes. Why can't we have the same for prescription drugs? > Most healthcare systems in the world operate by having the government form a bulk buying organization and negotiating the price of drugs down to a fraction of what Americans are forced to pay even in places without socialized prescription drug coverage. This isn't true. Switzerland operates on an entirely private insurance model. Ditto the Netherlands. Singapore (which enjoys the lowest per capita health expenditures and some of the best outcomes) is almost entirely driven by transparent pricing and regulations. Germany uses public-private hybrid model. In France, the NHI operates on a reimbursement model, where you still buy drugs at a pharmacy and shop around by price. The Canadian model is great, but it's not nearly as efficient as Singapore's. > One way of solving this would be to have Medicare negotiate the price of all drugs in the US. It's not the only way, you can also just institute price controls. Monopsony negotiation is in-effect the same thing. (addressing your edit) > The government already does an awful lot to make food affordable in the US, including subsidizing corn to well below the cost of production via continuous re-authorization of the Farm Bill. > The government does absolutely nothing to make drugs affordable. At all. Yes, all of what you said is correct there, and yet you still have a world where you shop for food on the basis of transparent pricing and sometimes even take advantage of coupons. Just like regulations and welfare co-exist with market pricing with food, so too can it exist with prescription drugs. Even in a world where the government offers direct subsidies on drugs, there is a place for GoodRx and its model. > [edit] There's lots of comprehensive solutions, and none of them involve coupon clipping. But that's just not true. GoodRx would, for example, do very well in Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany. https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/06/24/us-health-care-drugs-insurance-germany https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/06/24/us-health-care-drugs...