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How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

americanprogress.org

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Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#41

Post by logicchains »

mullen wrote: post #34
99_00 wrote: post #23

It was amazing to see skepticism and criticism of big pharma become forbid during COVID with many citizens happily shaming, ostracizing, and censoring others. And then to see it suddenly be allowed again. Extremely fascinating.

This article is from 2019 and second, I don't think anyone questions the validity of the results of Big Pharma, just the price, transparency and lack of willingness to allow the US Federal government to collectively price bargain.

People absolutely question the results of big pharma. Americans nowadays are less healthier and have lower life expectancies than their parents' generation, and while some of that may be due to lifestyle choices, some is due to pharma pushing drugs that are a net negative, like the unnecessary opioids that caused an addiction epidemic.

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#42

Post by bart_spoon »

logicchains wrote: post #41
mullen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is from 2019 and second, I don't think anyone questions the validity of the results of Big Pharma, just the price, transparency and lack of willingness to allow the US Federal government to collectively price bargain.

People absolutely question the results of big pharma. Americans nowadays are less healthier and have lower life expectancies than their parents' generation, and while some of that may be due to lifestyle choices, some is due to pharma pushing drugs that are a net negative, like the unnecessary opioids that caused an addiction epidemic.

The opioid epidemic isn’t making a dent in the lower life expectancy. Lower life expectancy is almost entirely due to heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer, and those are being driven primarily by bad diets, poor sleep, and sedentary lifestyles. Ironically, FAANG and many tech companies are probably more to blame in this respect than Pharma.

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#43

Post by infamouscow »

AlbertCory wrote: post #38

From 2019. Maybe an update now that Biden's been in office a while would be appropriate?

The legislative branch of government passes laws, not the executive.

Why would Biden being in office change anything unless he signed an executive order specifically about this?

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#44

Post by logicchains »

bart_spoon wrote: post #42
logicchains wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People absolutely question the results of big pharma. Americans nowadays are less healthier and have lower life expectancies than their parents' generation, and while some of that may be due to lifestyle choices, some is due to pharma pushing drugs that are a net negative, like the unnecessary opioids that caused an addiction epidemic.

The opioid epidemic isn’t making a dent in the lower life expectancy. Lower life expectancy is almost entirely due to heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer, and those are being driven primarily by bad diets, poor sleep, and sedentary lifestyles. Ironically, FAANG and many tech companies are probably more to blame in this respect than Pharma.

>The opioid epidemic isn’t making a dent in the lower life expectancy

That's absolutely false. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6034969/ for instance found that in British Columbia from 2014 to 2016, life expectancy declined 0.38 years of which 0.12 years of the decline was due to "mainly opioid-involved" overdoses, i.e. opioids were responsible for around a third of the reduction in life expectancy.

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#45

Post by serial_dev »

99_00 wrote: post #23

It was amazing to see skepticism and criticism of big pharma become forbid during COVID with many citizens happily shaming, ostracizing, and censoring others. And then to see it suddenly be allowed again. Extremely fascinating.

I was shocked how quickly "COVID went away" in German news and the public discourse when the war in Ukraine started.

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#46

Post by rr808 »

Obscurity4340 wrote: post #29

Its kind of amazing how a basic medication like Wellbutrin XL is like $1.18/dose while in the US, you're looking at $83/dose ($2483/30 at Walgreens). Same damn pill, free market capitalism my ass.

https://www.goodrx.com/wellbutrin-xl says $29 at Walgreens and most other pharmacists - some much cheaper.

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#47

Post by rr808 »

The hate on big Pharma is crazy to me. They're actually a pretty small part of the healthcare bill: 8.9%. Even if drugs were free your health insurance bill would be pretty much the same. https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/trends-health-care-s...

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#48

Post by AussieWog93 »

rr808 wrote: post #47

The hate on big Pharma is crazy to me. They're actually a pretty small part of the healthcare bill: 8.9%. Even if drugs were free your health insurance bill would be pretty much the same. https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/trends-health-care-s...

Depends who you are. For people with certain lifelong conditions, the drug component would make up almost 100% of their healthcare costs.

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#49

Post by AlbertCory »

infamouscow wrote: post #43
AlbertCory wrote: post #38

From 2019. Maybe an update now that Biden's been in office a while would be appropriate?

The legislative branch of government passes laws, not the executive. Why would Biden being in office change anything unless he signed an executive order specifically about this?

> unless he signed an executive order specifically about this?

.. and we all know he would never sign an order that he knew was unconstitutional /s

Re: How Big Pharma reaps profits while hurting everyday Americans (2019)

#50

Post by xyst »

“Big Pharma” is a symptom of a much larger issue in the USA. The root cause here is privatization of health care.

I hate dealing with the health insurance middlemen, and I supposedly have premium coverage. For some treatments my (in network) doctors prescribes, my insurance company will drag their ass through the approval and payout process.

It’s slightly invisible to me, and the doctors office staff usually takes care of the appeals process to get themselves paid. Occasionally I get a doctors office that gives up after 1 appeal and tries to forward me the bill for the rest. End up having to appeal myself and get it approved.

These vampires take their cut from my paycheck (in addition to the portion covered by my workplace). And they have the fucking nerve to deny treatments.

Let’s not forget about the mess with “pharmacy benefit managers” and their associated fees (“DIR” fees) on pharmacies. Large chains typically tank these costs through volume, but end up squeezing out the mom & pop pharmacies.

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