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They need to find a way to negotiate the price down for everyone, not just retirees. Kids need insulin.
And after that, epi pens.
Where are all of the "think of the children" folk? Not important now that they're born.
"If you're pre-born, you're fine. If you're preschool, you're fucked." -- George Carlin
Except even that isn't true, because those "choose life" assholes don't give two fucks about poor women without insurance being unable to afford pre-natal care. If your fetus dies from something preventable, fuck you lady.
The problem is the government can't set the price of goods in a private contract between two non-government entities, which is what would need to happen. The various bills you see in states setting co-pay caps is about as close as we can get, and that only happens because the government CAN regulate insurance companies and the policies they offer. While that might, eventually, put pressure on the insurance companies to demand lower prices from the manufacturers, it's a long way disconnected from the price paid by the patient.
And regulating copays doesn't help people without insurance at all.
That's why this is such an important step. When prescription coverage was added to Medicare, the ability of the government to negotiate drug prices was specifically striped from the bill. The Inflation Reduction Act added it back, finally. And it's a huge win. Medicare and Medicaid are enormous programs, and when they throw their weight around, they can affect the markets they're in dramatically. It's why the drug companies are already filing suit.
But the real solution isn't trying to force private insurance companies to play ball, or make drug manufacturers sell at a low price, it's to leverage that giant market pressure and expand Medicare eligibility to everyone. And if you're worried about funding? Don't be. Unlike social security, Medicare's tax has no maximum wage.
The pharmaceutical industry spent $700 million lobbying against this? What a bunch of assholes.
When your reaction to poor, sick human beings getting the medicine they need without losing everything else in their lives is disappointment, you're a bad person.
Fuck market capitalism and the sociopaths it creates.
Edit: and of course they're actively suing from their steel towers for the right to continue to gouge sick, poor people deeper into poverty. What a humane economic system, amirite?
Won't somebody think about the pharma shareholders!
Meanwhile, those same companies sell for a fraction of the price all around the world.
I don't know how this is a negotiation...big pharma overcharges the USA by a lot...we all know it. How is this not illegal? Why are they not held accountable for inflating prices for 1 group of people? Imagine if they did the to just a single race...black, white, Asian, whatever... Is t it the same thing?
Insurance companies when you need to use their service (which you pay monthly for):
They throw a few million in the right pockets and they make billions in return, best investment they ever made.
As someone from the UK, I don’t know what to make of the Biden administration.
I see positive news articles about what they’re doing, then I see people (not just right wing) saying it’s going poorly…
Obviously things can always be better and there are going to be areas where they’re failing, but how actually is it going over all?
Biden is fine. A lot of people are looking for someone who is going to revolutionize things overnight. A lot of folks also like to give the President blame or credit for things out of his control. Overall I've been pleasantly surprised. All I really wanted was not Trump, but Biden has been a lot better than that.
If we pretend Trump wasn't a thing, I'd say Biden is really living up to his campaign promise of "nothing will fundamentally change." By that I mean, he hasn't personally done anything amazing or terrible, and he hasn't gotten in the way of others, either.
For instance, this has the fingerprints of Bernie Sanders all over it, who chairs several committees in congress, including the relevant one for this. Has Biden stopped Bernie Sanders? No, and while I wish that fact wasn't a win, it is.
Bernie isn't alone in being the only good thing about our current government, either, but Biden also hasn't removed some of the terrible things the trump administration set up. The Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back a bunch of things I'm very upset about. It is my personal belief that he's heavily influenced by certain groups (insurance) but is trying in other areas.
Biden isn't at all supporting policies that are just common sense if you live anywhere else, and while the UK isn't the best, I've discussed this with a British friend and I still include them in that. In short, you have more protections from your government that they need to try to remove first.
In my opinion if Biden had been elected after Obama or after a normal Republican he would've basically had a quiet presidency and been one of the ones you don't really mention in history because nothing happened. Standard calls for corruption, but not worse than any regular senators. In today's world, that's positive, with Republican candidates promising to abolish the department of education, but in another world where things aren't full of neonazis and fascists, I'd be saying it's awful, because I would have wanted a president that would change things for the better, and now I'm just beaten down enough to be ok with "Nothing will fundamentally change."
I feel like he isn't a deranged narcissist who would nuke his own country if it somehow benefited him.
The bar is on the floor for the Republicans.
It must be getting close to a US election year. Suddenly, a Democratic president feigns to give a shit about the people who voted for him. Albeit grudgingly, of course, and knowing whatever he suggests now will be so watered down by the time it’s executed it will be like nothing happened at all.
You're right, but also it's better than nothing. If it were a republican in office they'd be doing the opposite and taking things away for the same reason, so I'll take it.
The fact that sentence exists is pathetic for modern society.
Overdue
The body count is as high as the tightrope on insulin price gouginf