Toddsterpatriot
Diamond Member
In Europe, the governments negotiate drug prices and have options about which companies they can deal with. The Epipen that was in the news not long ago cost over $600 in the US. Medicaid and Medicare are by law forbidden to negotiate the price. In Great Britain, the product negotiated for a cost of less than $70. How can the cost of medicine in the US be "free market" when there is a law that forbids the largest buyer of a product, Medicaid, and Medicare from negotiating a price and not allowing the manufacturer that produces the product for Great Britain to enter the competition?They have to actually compete with each other. That, and the government does not allow gouging, or at least prevents gouging by allowing the competition. In the US, companies are protected under the guise that without those protections the profit margin will make the production of products unprofitable and cause the product to not be produced. In other countries, the attitude is that there will be competition and entrepreneurs willing to produce the product for less profit margin. That is how a free market is supposed to work.It is not a genuinely free market. The government has a long list of tax breaks, subsidies, and laws that protect businesses that come under the heading of health care. Big pharma is an example. Drugs produced under license and inspected in foreign countries sell for a fraction of US prices all over Europe and Canada. Health care cost would drop drastically if US drug manufacturers had to compete with foreign manufacturers, even if they are made under strict inspections and certified as being the same quality of US manufactured products.The principal reason the Republican politicians cannot craft a workable health care bill is their ideological preference of the free market over government.
Drugs produced under license and inspected in foreign countries sell for a fraction of US prices all over Europe and Canada.
Why would evil drug companies sell for less in Europe and Canada? Can you explain?
They have to actually compete with each other.
They don't compete here?
That is how a free market is supposed to work.
You think drugs are cheaper in Europe and Canada because they have a freer market?
In Europe, the governments negotiate drug prices
Do you know how they negotiate?