A $20 drug in Europe requires a prescription and $800 in the U.S. • Hacker News Board

Re: A $20 drug in Europe requires a prescription and $800 in the U.S.

#271

Post by mooktakim » Sun, Dec 07, 2025, 5:51 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #8

FYI for anyone who isn't familiar with the wacky US insurance situation: Nobody in the US actually pays $800 for the drug. That's the "list price" for insurance companies to pay. Even insurance companies don't pay that price because they negotiate their own rates with the drug companies, which are lower. Then the drug companies come in and offer a "savings card" which you apply at the pharmacy like another layer of i…

You pay by paying the premium. Your employer pays, but that money comes from your potential salary.

Re: A $20 drug in Europe requires a prescription and $800 in the U.S.

#272

Post by mooktakim » Sun, Dec 07, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #115

However, it’s not all roses. Try getting melatonin in the UK. You can buy it almost anywhere in the US. Same for any first generation antihistamines. Or a jar of painkillers - packets are limited to 16 here. Or lidocaine cream. Whenever I go to the US, I have a shopping list to restock our medicine cabinet.

Selling painkillers in 16 pill packets is a problem? It's readily available and very cheap (paracetamol and ibuprofen) generic brands. Never in my life this has been an issue

Re: A $20 drug in Europe requires a prescription and $800 in the U.S.

#273

Post by roryirvine » Sun, Dec 07, 2025, 6:11 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #132

petercooper wrote: post #115

However, it’s not all roses. Try getting melatonin in the UK. You can buy it almost anywhere in the US. Same for any first generation antihistamines. Or a jar of painkillers - packets are limited to 16 here. Or lidocaine cream. Whenever I go to the US, I have a shopping list to restock our medicine cabinet.

That's a very selective example. The US controls TONS of hormones, Melatonin just got grandfathered in. If anything the UK system is more self-consistent than the US, even if I think both systems over-protect hormones with a low risk profile (like Melatonin in the UK). As a counter-example, up until fairly recently you could buy Co-codamol (codeine, an opioid) in the UK off-the-shelf (i.e. no script). Which is a cont…

Co-codamol 8/500 (8 mg codeine and 500 mg paracetamol) is still available in the UK without a prescription. As far as I'm aware, though, it's always been OTC (over-the-counter, ie. you have to ask the pharmacist) rather than off the shelf.

The big change recently (mid 2010s) was that the pharmacist now has to verbally warn against driving, whereas previously it was just a prominent warning on the packaging & advice leaflet.

Re: A $20 drug in Europe requires a prescription and $800 in the U.S.

#274

Post by eszed » Tue, Dec 09, 2025, 2:12 AM UTC

dpkirchner wrote: post #157

eszed wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The public option works to set a roof on what private insurance can charge. Exactly! This is what no one in the US seems to understand. My encounters with private clinics and hospitals in the UK (all 10+ years ago, at this point) were unbelievably luxurious, at prices that (totally, completely free-market driven, mind you) were affordable on middle-class incomes. Or, yeah: there's private medical insurance, also fr…

Unfortunately a lot of us do understand this, but our representatives (who definitely know this) don't care or are actively opposed to making improvements other than reducing taxes (which hurts more than helps, IMO).

Of course: "No one" is an obvious exaggeration. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if a great many members of Congress didn't understand much about other countries' healthcare / welfare / transportation / energy / etc systems. I think they ought to, but many of them show little knowledge or curiosity about these subjects in their own country, and with an electorate in which fewer than half of all voters have a passport they face not much penalty for incuriousity about the wider world.