Why are so many people OK with getting gouged for prescription medication?

Question

Even if you have insurance, your copay is very often higher than the full cost of the same meds (made by same the company) in Canada.

The cost for a some generic drugs can be slightly lower in the U.S., but on balance, Americans pay much more.

"For example, a common dosage of Celebrex, an arthritis relief medicine, costs $85.99 in the United States and $44.76 in Canada. A particularly striking comparison involves the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen, a common dosage of which sells for $340.77 in America and $39.19 in Canada."

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/462504

“Perhaps most galling,” Greider writes, “is our neighbors in Canada pay about 62 percent of what we do for the same medicines.” Sixty tablets of the cholesterol drug Zocor cost $43.97 in Canada and $109.43 just across the border in Vermont. The arthritis drug Relafen® runs $60 for 100 pills in Canada and $120.27 in Vermont.

http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/publications/magazine/0503_bigfix.cfm#jackupprices

Oldvet, Canada went through the same thing. They once had a system like the U.S., and changing it was painful. You can imagine. Canadians were over the same barrel that Americans are. But they fought back.

little78lucky, it is ridiculous. It's beyond that. It's one of the worst kind of human perversions. Greed is killing us.

Answer 1

they say america pays more because they add in the cost of research and development...wanna hear a cost horror story i used to have to get a shot every 3 weeks during my cancer treatments..this shot cost the hospital from the drup company $300 (it prob only cost $10 to make it but that part is a guess) then the hospital would bill my insurance $6000 for the shot..then i needed meds for the side effects for the shot boom add in another $500 a month now thats not including the rest of the treatments i received thats just the one shot and side effects meds
the cost of healthcare is rediculous in my opinion

Answer 2

This is a pet peeve of mine. I pay full price for my medicines and nothing gripes me more than to have someone fighting with the pharmacist that they are certain their $10 co-pay should only be $5. I walk up and the pharmacist says that'll be $420. Ridiculous.

I can tell you one of the reasons why. Every single day across America, a drug rep is feeding your entire doctor's staff lunch so that they can get a moment to educate and another moment to bribe the doctor to use whatever med they are peddling that day. Can you imagine what that must cost the drug companies daily in marketing fees? I can imagine because I pay for it every time I buy my medicine.

Answer 3

I don't think anyone is OK with it. The way I see it the prices should be lower here and the exports higher but like the first guy said "what do we do?". If we start passing laws we may screw ourselves worse the way we have with EPA law and labor laws. We could see the drug companies relocate and charge us even more to import the drugs.

To the guy with the socialization idea- If you really want to see an exodus of business and health care workers just socialize and you will have to learn Spanish to speak to your nurse and hope like hell she reads English well enough to give you the right meds.

Answer 4

Because the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most corrupt and powerful in the world and support the GOP contention that any changes would be a case of "liberals supporting socialism! OH NO! HELP US! WE MUST PAY $400 FOR MEDICINE OR THE EVIL SOCIALISTS WILL GET US!!!

Answer 5

Basically because people think of it as an old persons problem even though for decades the elderly have been left with the choice of buying life saving medicine or food......what kind of choice is that? The rich neo-cons just shrug and say they should've planned better. Well what happens when you lose your job and there goes all your planning. We need something better.

Answer 6

I'm not OK with it. Some medications sold in the U.S. get a 14,000 % profit. These drug companies are making a ton of money. That's why our insurance premiums are so high.

Answer 7

Beats the crap out of dying. Aspirin relieve arthritis. IF you had breast cancer would you protest the cost or buy the medicine.
I see a complaint on your part, do you have a solution?

Answer 8

Yes, but ask Canadians what they think of their system!

Prices go down, for a time, with a socialist system, but with competition taken out (as it is to some extent with us for the same reason with HMOs, etc.) there is no reason for prices to stay low, no competition keeping them low.

Government is required in increasing amounts to force the price down, leading to more socialism and finally nationalization of the medical system.

No, thank you.

Answer 9

feeling overcharged does not constitute an economic basis for change. you need a better study that includes the cost of doing business (esp. research) for drug companies.

Answer 10

because the medication companies tell them that socialized medicine is bad and if they don't pay more they are communist... and many eat it up like candy...