This has been coming since 2018. Is there no end to Amazon's dominance? I seriously worry that it's becoming a real threat to democracy.
Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
101–110 of 276 posts
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're probably right, and I agree with you. However, in this case, the US healthcare system is so terrible and, in some respects, evil that I'm glad Amazon is working to disrupt (what'll probably end up being) large portions of it.
That's a problem right there that a small company couldn't challenge it. Healthcare also is in a desperate need of a reform, as currently is just a gravy train for fat cats meanwhile people are suffering and going bankrupt.
And Amazon isn't just a gravy train for Amazon executives and some employees, while people are suffering and going bankrupt?
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is this a monopoly? Walmart is a competitor and they also have a pharmacy.
Hell, let's make a list of what Amazon's business interests are: - Colocation and managed data center services - Managed technology services - Ecommerce (in just about every category including food) - Satellites - Space flight (Blue Origin) - IOT Devices - Government services (managed infrastructure etc) - Home internet (Kuiper Systems) - Autonomous vehicles - Investing - Pharmacy services I'm just going to stop here…
The above situation does not fit the definition of monopoly:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly
> A monopoly (from Greek μόνος, mónos, 'single, alone' and πωλεῖν, pōleîn, 'to sell') exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity. This contrasts with a monopsony which relates to a single entity's control of a market to purchase a good or service, and with oligopoly and duopoly which consists of a few sellers dominating a market.[1] Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce the good or service, a lack of viable substitute goods, and the possibility of a high monopoly price well above the seller's marginal cost that leads to a high monopoly profit.[2]
For example, almost everyone can get their medication at Costco, Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been reading some books on the medical industry and one of the things pointed out is that the price controls will often not provide enough profit to R&D new drugs. That the US ends up subsidizing a lot of R&D cost that everyone benefits from. If this is the case, I wonder what would happen to drug development if that goes away. Note, I'm not saying there's not too much profit from drugs. These statements don't h…
If this is true, what is the point of US consumers subsidizing the R&D is they themselves cannot benefit from it.
The rich ones can benefit from it, and then it gets added to the claims that the US has the world's best healthcare system that helps convince the rest that the system should be kept.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#105This has been coming since 2018. Is there no end to Amazon's dominance? I seriously worry that it's becoming a real threat to democracy.
> Is there no end to Amazon's dominance?
Check out the Boots Riley directed movie Sorry To Bother You [1], they have a big company in that movie, called WorryFree, that is similar to Amazon where they offer lifetime labour contracts, it’s a very promising future! /sarcasm
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better than the farce that is "competitive market forces." I have more faith in government than corporate structures delivering optimal cost pricing to consumers as opposed to optimizing their profit margins. Competive forces only work while there's competition, the second competition declines, rest assured consumer pricing is the first to take a hit.
Competitive forces in the health care market in the US don't function (pretty much at all) because of government induced market distortions and regulatory capture. FDA certification enormously drives up the cost of medicines and medical devices; government bureaucrats have no incentive to balance safety with time to market, price, availability, supply, or diversity of sources; most of these represent risk to the peop…
Good luck ending up with homeopathy kick off working drugs of the market. If reputation could destroy those, it already would have.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is very similar (and really interesting) though I’m not sure if Walmart has a special condition on use of insurance. Amazon appears to be incentivizing customers to not use insurance to pay for their drugs. I’m not sure if Walmart does the same. If so, that’s also noteworthy.
Discount programs everywhere focus on the uninsured (the insured have the insurance company also paying discounted rates, generally, but those are individually negotiated; the sticker price is just to have a starting point for negotiations with deep pocket public and private insurers.) In many cases, the discounts in the discount programs are subsidized by the drug companies for uninsured patients.
Yep, for full disclosure, I work in healthcare pricing and payments and adjust claims myself.
While discount programs focus on the uninsured, this is the first time I’m seeing the discount being framed in such a way that it effectively incentivizes paying out of pocket. It’s an important incentive if your goal is to decouple routine drugs from the third-party-payer model of insurance.
Health insurance in the US is actually 3 different services bundled into one: (1) risk sharing for catastrophic care, (2) access to low prices (called "fee schedules"), and (3) tax advantaged pre-payment for non-catastrophic care. 40-80% discount on drug prices essentially competes with insurance company fee schedules, i.e. service (2). By offering what amounts to insurance rates without charging insurance premiums, Amazon is essentially decoupling the fee schedules from risk sharing. That's a really underrated side effect of this product offering, and can have long run impacts on the industry (IMO for the better).
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#108Do they mix bins on medicine too?
Sterile medical supplies listed as "new" that I have ordered were delivered open box & repackaged instead, so it wouldn't surprise me to see that with medication too.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
> price negotiator Would you prefer the government to negotiate the price of your car for you? Markets are a powerful tool
If the difference between affording a car and not being able to afford a car would kill me, then maybe I would like the government to step in to negotiate on behalf of all of its citizens.
You can guarantee universal healthcare (and medication) without top-down control of pricing, or at least not total control. Most drugs aren't making headlines, so you can control the x% that matter while still getting cheaper prices for most consumers by letting the outlets compete.
Your website suggests you are American, so I recommend taking a look at the various healthcare systems on display in Europe, they're not all made equally (i.e. Some do more on behalf of their citizens than most). In my experience of watching American discussing healthcare in the EU, the subtleties are often lost, sadly.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hell, let's make a list of what Amazon's business interests are: - Colocation and managed data center services - Managed technology services - Ecommerce (in just about every category including food) - Satellites - Space flight (Blue Origin) - IOT Devices - Government services (managed infrastructure etc) - Home internet (Kuiper Systems) - Autonomous vehicles - Investing - Pharmacy services I'm just going to stop here…
The above situation does not fit the definition of monopoly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly > A monopoly (from Greek μόνος, mónos, 'single, alone' and πωλεῖν, pōleîn, 'to sell') exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity. This contrasts with a monopsony which relates to a single entity's control of a market to purchase a good or service, and with oligopoly and d…
I know what the legal and colloquial definitions of a monopoly are. It obviously needs to change. I cannot fathom how one company with all these varied interests and capabilities are somehow "good for consumers", which is exactly the spirit of anti-trust law.
At one point in American history we were far too loose and reckless with what a monopoly was defined as. Now, nothing is a monopoly. I can't imagine how this is much better.