Do they mix bins on medicine too?
That's my question, and no way in hell I'm buying meds or supplements on Amazon. Nothing that goes in my body. They blew their trustworthiness on that a long, long time ago.
Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
141–150 of 276 posts
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#142Amazon has more fingers in pies than a leper in a bakery.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#143Earlier 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.
Not being able to afford food can also kill you (you would starve to death). Is that a sufficient justification for the government to step in to negotiate food prices on behalf of its citizens?
There are merits to government price controls and there are certainly countries that have employed them successfully. That said, it isn’t the only solution to bending the cost curve, and there are also downsides to price controls. It’s complicated.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your county isn't doing free COVID testing?!?! In my county in Maryland every day there are about 10 sites you can get free testing (though they are not all open all day, but at any given time between 7a-6p you can get tested at least one or two places). There are also private practices where you can pay extra to get the results back 1-2 days earlier.
I had a secondary exposure and my rapid test was $400. Thankfully I have really good insurance and didn't pay anything. My alma mater has an endowment of multiple tens of billions of dollars and was forcing students to pay for COVID tests after having on-campus lectures.
>Thankfully I have really good insurance and didn't pay anything.
For the lolz.
You are paying for it, you just don't get an itemized bill. It comes at the cost of extremely high 'insurance'. And if you think you're employer just absorbs that cost, realize that the extra cost would be in your pocket as wages if it weren't going towards healthcare.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#145Given the issue with counterfeit material in their warehouses, I don’t even know what they could do to make me trust their control of the drug supply chain.
The counterfeit merchandise is a problem caused by Amazon having third party sellers ship their inventory to Amazon warehouses for faster delivery to customers. Unless something has gone horribly wrong, I doubt Amazon Pharmacy is looking to be a "marketplace" with third party sellers like that.
That may all be true, but for me the trust is long gone. That's the price they pay for not taking the counterfeiting problem seriously. They've literally demonstrated that they prioritize sales and shipping efficiency over honesty.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#146As a British citizen, this is so disturbing to me.
As an American resident, I couldn't be more excited for Amazon to disrupt the reprehensible anti-customer practices endemic to the US healthcare system. Recently, I had a runny nose and no fever and thought, "what the heck, let's get a COVID test", and found out they are $200+ here in Austin.
The market puts a price on things to prevent people from frivolously wasting resources and to improve availability to people who actually need them.
Edit to remove snarky tone.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would add a 4th service for health insurance in the US to be a way for healthy, young people to pay for the care of sicker, old people due. AKA, a tax, due to the following stipulations of the ACA. 1) Age Rating Factors https://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Health-In... 2) Out of pocket maximums for in network care 3) Elimination of pre-existing conditions, i.e. accepting all lives no matter how costly…
That’s captured by (1) risk sharing. Pooled risk sharing is great for things like fire departments where out of 1000 homes, one might catch fire every few months. It’s also great for societies where out of 1000 people, a small handful suffer from chronic illnesses or tragic accidents and the remaining are healthy. The problem is that it’s just a hammer, and not everything in healthcare is a nail.
Taxes are basically risk sharing across the whole population. But I wanted to specify that it's not risk sharing like your auto insurance is, or home insurance, or term life insurance. Those are infrequent, random events for the most part.
Whereas, healthcare is a guaranteed expense, so the premiums are just prepaying for the coming expenses. But today, you're not paying for your healthcare expenses, but for the older, sicker person's healthcare, just like FICA taxes are paying for healthcare for those 65 years and older.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#148Earlier 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.
US healthcare is terrible _because_ it's for-profit. Won't this just entrench it further?
US healthcare is terrible because of system effects, not the profit motive. Most hospitals are run as non-profits and yet their spending is INSANELY out of control.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Not being able to afford food can also kill you (you would starve to death). Is that a sufficient justification for the government to step in to negotiate food prices on behalf of its citizens? There are merits to government price controls and there are certainly countries that have employed them successfully. That said, it isn’t the only solution to bending the cost curve, and there are also downsides to price contr…
> Is that a sufficient justification for the government to step in to negotiate food prices on behalf of its citizens?
Yes? We already do this? For many years directly in the postwar period and now indirectly through agriculture subsidies and programs like SNAP. Making sure everyone has enough to eat is step one of having any kind of functioning society and why it’s always been a source of massive government intervention in the economy.
Re: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy for prescription medicine delivery
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not being able to afford food can also kill you (you would starve to death). Is that a sufficient justification for the government to step in to negotiate food prices on behalf of its citizens? There are merits to government price controls and there are certainly countries that have employed them successfully. That said, it isn’t the only solution to bending the cost curve, and there are also downsides to price contr…
> Is that a sufficient justification for the government to step in to negotiate food prices on behalf of its citizens? Yes? We already do this? For many years directly in the postwar period and now indirectly through agriculture subsidies and programs like SNAP. Making sure everyone has enough to eat is step one of having any kind of functioning society and why it’s always been a source of massive government interven…
Yes, that's the whole point. SNAP and directed subsidies are decidedly NOT the same as government prices-setting. The analog in healthcare is targeted subsidies for poor people that cannot afford care, not government negotiation and price setting.
Making sure everyone has access to healthcare is, for the most part, a universally held goal. The disagreement is whether the only way to achieve that is through government price controls.