Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

freethink.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 392 posts

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#151

Post by relax88 »

cde-v wrote: post #141
oceanplexian wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully disagree. I live in a smaller US state and I’ve emailed my representatives and received a personal reply from both of them. One actually engaged and we politely discussed a public policy issue back and forth in an email thread. More often than not you can walk right into their office and meet them if you’d like.

I'm sure your nice discussion held as much sway with them as hundreds of thousands of dollars of "donations".

Try showing up with 500 people.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#152

Post by shadowgovt »

dekhn wrote: post #109
badRNG wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What else is one to do?

If your question is truly serious, the answer is: nothing. It's almost certainly impossible to fix the US healthcare system given the enormous number of people who profit so much from its current dysfunction. Unless there is some sort of major disruption that completely changes the landscape (very unlikely), you can expect pharma in the US to be extremely expensive.

That's bad news, because when the answer is "nothing," people don't do nothing.

They instead resort to the language of the unheard.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#153

Post by luffapi »

sremani wrote: post #147
luffapi wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about the Democratic Party? They are more responsible for the extreme cost of healthcare in the US than any other political faction. Mandatory insurance, COBRA payouts… Did you know Gretchen Whitmer’s dad was the CEO of BlueCross? I say this as a leftist: the Democratic Party is the party of the health industrial complex. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-public-option-h...

Look at the Health insurance stock after Obamacare was passed - they all sky rocketed.

As did the cost of healthcare. Also look at the health insurance stock when Biden was officially nominated.

Edit: source

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/20/cramer-bidens-2020-bid-is-se...

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#154

Post by relax88 »

skohan wrote: post #41
dv_dt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The production cost of insulin is incredibly low. The pricing on it in the United States is systematic criminal manslaughter.

What's the actual situation there? I have read that cheap insulin for example is available at WallMart, but for some reason the price of insulin seems to be a huge issue.

It’s the same reason why health care costs are out of control in general.

It’s a for-profit system where literally every cog from drug company to pharmacist has an incentive to separate you from your money.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#155

Post by andai »

relax88 wrote: post #151
cde-v wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure your nice discussion held as much sway with them as hundreds of thousands of dollars of "donations".

Try showing up with 500 people.

I hazarded a guess that a bit more than 500 people suffer from diabetes in the US -- more like 34 million. If you could get one in a thousand to agree to take political action, that's 34,000 people.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#156

Post by dekhn »

shadowgovt wrote: post #152
dekhn wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your question is truly serious, the answer is: nothing. It's almost certainly impossible to fix the US healthcare system given the enormous number of people who profit so much from its current dysfunction. Unless there is some sort of major disruption that completely changes the landscape (very unlikely), you can expect pharma in the US to be extremely expensive.

That's bad news, because when the answer is "nothing," people don't do nothing. They instead resort to the language of the unheard.

it will be interesting to see how health care evolves in the US, to say the least.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#157

Post by moomin »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #9

Insulin is a solved problem, in first-world countries the sale price is fixed and there's public healthcare. But in America you are supposed to take "personal responsibility" for your own health and biohack your way ouf of type 1 diabetes?! Srsly? This s a political, not a scientific problem. Call your congresscritter.

I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time someone has tried to solve America’s political problems with tech.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#158

Post by TeeMassive »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #57
birdyrooster wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found your problem: "African American adults are 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician." Given that the middle class is very white and employed with insurance coverage, it virtually doesn't affect white people. Our politics takes black people's votes for granted and don't do anything for them.

>Our politics takes black people's votes for granted and don't do anything for them. It's worse than that. If they sufficiently pandered to them to the point of actually solving their problems then they wouldn't be able to take those votes for granted, so they'll never solve their problems.

Black Votes Matter.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#159

Post by skciva »

nceqs3 wrote: post #85
a3n wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Call your congresscritter. Sorry, but regular people don't make "campaign contributions" of any noticable size, so all we get back is a form letter acknowledgement based on whatever box you checked for subject. Big Pharma, Big X and Big Y, on the other hand, "donate" enough "campaign contributions" that the campaigner can all but ensure (re) election based on recent name recognition to get the nomination, then coun…

Factually incorrect comment. Corporations cannot make campaign contributions.

wink wink

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#160

Post by coliveira »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #9

Insulin is a solved problem, in first-world countries the sale price is fixed and there's public healthcare. But in America you are supposed to take "personal responsibility" for your own health and biohack your way ouf of type 1 diabetes?! Srsly? This s a political, not a scientific problem. Call your congresscritter.

Congress has been bought by big pharma. There is nothing the American people can do at this point other than revolting on the streets.
Post reply on HN