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All of those countries set how much they'll pay for insulin. They have price controls. The USA does the opposite; requires governmental medical insurance provid
by jellicle 5y ago
All of those countries set how much they'll pay for insulin. They have price controls. The USA does the opposite; requires governmental medical insurance providers NOT to bargain with pharma companies and instead explicitly requires them to pay whatever price the pharma company sets.
Low prices could come from either a) a robust, competitive market in producing and selling insulin or b) governmental price controls. The USA explicitly chooses not to have either. Other countries typically choose b) backed up by a threat of a) (if you're a pain in the ass over our negotiated price controls, we'll go source a large supply of insulin from somewhere else).
- boublepop 5y ago> The USA does the opposite; requires governmental medical insurance providers NOT to bargain with pharma companies and instead explicitly requires them to pay whatever price the pharma company sets. That’s either a gross misunderstanding or deliberate misinformation. There is both price negotiations and significant rebates negotiated by pharmacy benefits managers who will often make 75% of the profit on the sale of the drugs back as rebates. They then distribute that back to insurers and other parties. Sadly those enormous rebates don’t seem to reach or benefit the patients.
- jellicle 5y ago> > requires governmental medical insurance providers