Who here "opposes" this simple Sanders' proposal?

[OKTexas]

One of Sanders' proposal is not only sane but doable if only congress was not a bunch of self-centered cowards...The proposal is to compel Medicare to openly negotiate with big pharmaceuticals companies for lower prices based on volume.....

Who would lose if this proposal were to become a reality? Big pharma's CEOs and board members who no longer could upgrade to more modern Lear jets every few years.

I have no problem with it, the VA does in now.

 

[nat4900]

For some of those really, really dense right wingers, let me repeat these sentences:

Congress barred Medicare from negotiating the way Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs do with drug makers to get lower prices. Instead, lawmakers insisted the job be done by private insurance companies.”

 

[HenryBHough]

So simple to just nationalize the drug companies when the unlimited abilities of a a "president" with a phone and a pen are exposed to the harsh realities of daylight. Precedent, dear children, has already been set. You want government-issue drugs then get behind Nutty Old Uncle Bernie. Remember to fill out the forms for your ration cards.

 

[nat4900]

So simple to just nationalize the drug companies when the unlimited abilities of a a "president" with a phone and a pen are exposed to the harsh realities of daylight. Precedent, dear children, has already been set. You want government-issue drugs then get behind Nutty Old Uncle Bernie. Remember to fill out the forms for your ration cards.

Fantastic...Drug companies rely on nitwits....like you.....to belittle any attempt to curtail their ludicrous profits......

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/30/Drug-Company-Profits-Soar-Taxpayers-Foot-Bill

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

So simple to just nationalize the drug companies when the unlimited abilities of a a "president" with a phone and a pen are exposed to the harsh realities of daylight. Precedent, dear children, has already been set. You want government-issue drugs then get behind Nutty Old Uncle Bernie. Remember to fill out the forms for your ration cards.

Fantastic...Drug companies rely on nitwits....like you.....to belittle any attempt to curtail their ludicrous profits......

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/30/Drug-Company-Profits-Soar-Taxpayers-Foot-Bill

Page not found.

 

[OKTexas]

For some of those really, really dense right wingers, let me repeat these sentences:

Congress barred Medicare from negotiating the way Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs do with drug makers to get lower prices. Instead, lawmakers insisted the job be done by private insurance companies.”

Would have been nice had you included that in the OP, guess you didn't think it was pertinent then.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Here's a question: do people think that government should be bargaining with some drugs or all of them? Two, then would we have to buy our drugs from the government?

 

[edthecynic]

Even a broken clock is right twice a day....Sander's downfall is the other 22 hours

Actually that is 23 hours, 59 minutes and 58 seconds, but it figures that someone too stupid to understand something as simple as a clock would object to Sanders!

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I pretty sure that the insurers already beat the crap out of Pharma and the retailers for reductions.

If you're gonna "negotiate" --- that's gotta be for each drug individually. Because SOME drugs are only applicable to 10,000 patients or less. You start beating on THOSE drugs -- and folks are gonna die. Because NO pharma will bring a low-volume drug to the market. Another example of socialists not understanding how stuff really works.

It's always a fictional view of a perfectly simple world, where stuff just magically gets willed into existence and costs whatever "good folks with the best intentions" want them to cost.

The future is really in "custom drugs".. Targeted to characteristics of your genome. So this "negotiation" is gonna cost a trainload if it's done for 10 or 100 patients at a time..

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic with crap insurance so I pay for all my medications with cash.

Insulin kept getting more and more expensive and I couldn't figure out why. I called the manufacturer, searched the internet, but could get no satisfactory answer. Then I stumbled on it:

I asked a pharmacist about it at my grocery store, and she couldn't give me an answer either, but she did say that Walmart had a generic insulin for much cheaper. I'm not crazy about taking Walmart insulin, so I discarded the idea.

When the prices increased again, I went to investigate. What I found is that this generic insulin was not generic at all. It was made by Lilly--the same manufacture of the insulin I was using, but put an ® on the package to identify Walmart's generic drug company name--Reliance.

It was less than half the price I was paying for my insulin, but made by the exact same people. I'm still purchasing it today. So what happened?

What happened is that Walmart cornered Lilly into selling their insulin cheaper because Walmart has a huge prescription customer base. Lilly in return increased the price of their insulin everywhere else, and that's why it was getting so expensive. It was a dirty deal between Lilly and Walmart.

The reason I wrote this story is to point out what would happen if drug companies would be pressured into lowering their prices; they would only increase their prices on their other products, or on the same product if let's say the deal was made for Medicare only. We would still be paying.

It's like Commie Care--cost shifting, but no real solution.

 

[nat4900]

Page not found.

Try again, if interested...

Drug Company Profits Soar as Taxpayers Foot the Bill

 

[HenryBHough]

Fantastic...Drug companies rely on nitwits....like you.....to belittle any attempt to curtail their ludicrous profits......

How can your square not standing up for nationalization and still think yo'self a liberal?

SHAME!

 

[nat4900]

I pretty sure that the insurers already beat the crap out of Pharma and the retailers for reductions.

If you're gonna "negotiate" --- that's gotta be for each drug individually. Because SOME drugs are only applicable to 10,000 patients or less. You start beating on THOSE drugs -- and folks are gonna die. Because NO pharma will bring a low-volume drug to the market. Another example of socialists not understanding how stuff really works.

It's always a fictional view of a perfectly simple world, where stuff just magically gets willed into existence and costs whatever "good folks with the best intentions" want them to cost.

The future is really in "custom drugs".. Targeted to characteristics of your genome. So this "negotiation" is gonna cost a trainload if it's done for 10 or 100 patients at a time..

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic with crap insurance so I pay for all my medications with cash.

Insulin kept getting more and more expensive and I couldn't figure out why. I called the manufacturer, searched the internet, but could get no satisfactory answer. Then I stumbled on it:

I asked a pharmacist about it at my grocery store, and she couldn't give me an answer either, but she did say that Walmart had a generic insulin for much cheaper. I'm not crazy about taking Walmart insulin, so I discarded the idea.

When the prices increased again, I went to investigate. What I found is that this generic insulin was not generic at all. It was made by Lilly--the same manufacture of the insulin I was using, but put an ® on the package to identify Walmart's generic drug company name--Reliance.

It was less than half the price I was paying for my insulin, but made by the exact same people. I'm still purchasing it today. So what happened?

What happened is that Walmart cornered Lilly into selling their insulin cheaper because Walmart has a huge prescription customer base. Lilly in return increased the price of their insulin everywhere else, and that's why it was getting so expensive. It was a dirty deal between Lilly and Walmart.

The reason I wrote this story is to point out what would happen if drug companies would be pressured into lowering their prices; they would only increase their prices on their other products, or on the same product if let's say the deal was made for Medicare only. We would still be paying.

It's like Commie Care--cost shifting, but no real solution.

Sorry about your situation, but Lily may be compared to the extortionist who peddles "insurance"......Have you ever wondered why European countries do not succumb to such tactics?

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

One of Sanders' proposal is not only sane but doable if only congress was not a bunch of self-centered cowards...The proposal is to compel Medicare to openly negotiate with big pharmaceuticals companies for lower prices based on volume.....

Who would lose if this proposal were to become a reality? Big pharma's CEOs and board members who no longer could upgrade to more modern Lear jets every few years.

==========
They don't HAVE to compel Medicare.

Medicare would LOVE to price shop.

But Mr. Boehner insisted on putting that in there for the benefit of the pharmaceutical companies when he negotiated Obamacare with Obama.

BTW Obama gave Boehner almost everything he wanted and then Boehner pretends he hates it all and doesn't know how it possibly got written up that way.

What a fuckin' lie. Boehner was involved in creating Medicare just as much as Obama was.

Why must you state such an obvious lie? No Republicans were even allowed to even discuss Obamacare. It was passed by political chicanery and nary a Republican had a damn say in anything about it!

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Page not found.

Try again, if interested...

Drug Company Profits Soar as Taxpayers Foot the Bill

Thank you, that was a fair piece.

I've had this discussion with my cousin who is a research doctor in Maryland. She sent me back a report that kind of says what this article does.

Profits don't reflect investments. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to get a new drug out into the market. Most of the drugs that companies invest this money in never make it to the market because of our federal laws (FDA).

To recoup those losses, they increase the cost of drugs that do make it to the market or drugs currently on the market that do have FDA approval.

In other cases, our US companies invested the millions in research, lost it all because of the FDA, but were able to sell their new products in foreign markets. That's why you read of these stories of Americans going to other countries to get drugs not available here.

So the question is, are the drug companies the culprit or our government?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I pretty sure that the insurers already beat the crap out of Pharma and the retailers for reductions.

If you're gonna "negotiate" --- that's gotta be for each drug individually. Because SOME drugs are only applicable to 10,000 patients or less. You start beating on THOSE drugs -- and folks are gonna die. Because NO pharma will bring a low-volume drug to the market. Another example of socialists not understanding how stuff really works.

It's always a fictional view of a perfectly simple world, where stuff just magically gets willed into existence and costs whatever "good folks with the best intentions" want them to cost.

The future is really in "custom drugs".. Targeted to characteristics of your genome. So this "negotiation" is gonna cost a trainload if it's done for 10 or 100 patients at a time..

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic with crap insurance so I pay for all my medications with cash.

Insulin kept getting more and more expensive and I couldn't figure out why. I called the manufacturer, searched the internet, but could get no satisfactory answer. Then I stumbled on it:

I asked a pharmacist about it at my grocery store, and she couldn't give me an answer either, but she did say that Walmart had a generic insulin for much cheaper. I'm not crazy about taking Walmart insulin, so I discarded the idea.

When the prices increased again, I went to investigate. What I found is that this generic insulin was not generic at all. It was made by Lilly--the same manufacture of the insulin I was using, but put an ® on the package to identify Walmart's generic drug company name--Reliance.

It was less than half the price I was paying for my insulin, but made by the exact same people. I'm still purchasing it today. So what happened?

What happened is that Walmart cornered Lilly into selling their insulin cheaper because Walmart has a huge prescription customer base. Lilly in return increased the price of their insulin everywhere else, and that's why it was getting so expensive. It was a dirty deal between Lilly and Walmart.

The reason I wrote this story is to point out what would happen if drug companies would be pressured into lowering their prices; they would only increase their prices on their other products, or on the same product if let's say the deal was made for Medicare only. We would still be paying.

It's like Commie Care--cost shifting, but no real solution.

Sorry about your situation, but Lily may be compared to the extortionist who peddles "insurance"......Have you ever wondered why European countries do not succumb to such tactics?

Insurance companies do one thing: pay the bills. That's it. They do nothing different than our government does with our social programs. In fact, our government has hired private insurance to do their billing for them because they are so efficient at it.

Until Commie Care came along, health insurance companies made a reasonable profit, but not record profits like companies outside of the healthcare industry. They were between 2% and 9% I believe.

Insurance companies are not the major problem with healthcare costs.

 

[initforme]

Drug companies and big pharma are fleecing people. The number of Americans who are disgruntled by them is growing exponentially. I don't trust them whatsoever.

 

[flacaltenn]

I pretty sure that the insurers already beat the crap out of Pharma and the retailers for reductions.

If you're gonna "negotiate" --- that's gotta be for each drug individually. Because SOME drugs are only applicable to 10,000 patients or less. You start beating on THOSE drugs -- and folks are gonna die. Because NO pharma will bring a low-volume drug to the market. Another example of socialists not understanding how stuff really works.

It's always a fictional view of a perfectly simple world, where stuff just magically gets willed into existence and costs whatever "good folks with the best intentions" want them to cost.

The future is really in "custom drugs".. Targeted to characteristics of your genome. So this "negotiation" is gonna cost a trainload if it's done for 10 or 100 patients at a time..

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic with crap insurance so I pay for all my medications with cash.

Insulin kept getting more and more expensive and I couldn't figure out why. I called the manufacturer, searched the internet, but could get no satisfactory answer. Then I stumbled on it:

I asked a pharmacist about it at my grocery store, and she couldn't give me an answer either, but she did say that Walmart had a generic insulin for much cheaper. I'm not crazy about taking Walmart insulin, so I discarded the idea.

When the prices increased again, I went to investigate. What I found is that this generic insulin was not generic at all. It was made by Lilly--the same manufacture of the insulin I was using, but put an ® on the package to identify Walmart's generic drug company name--Reliance.

It was less than half the price I was paying for my insulin, but made by the exact same people. I'm still purchasing it today. So what happened?

What happened is that Walmart cornered Lilly into selling their insulin cheaper because Walmart has a huge prescription customer base. Lilly in return increased the price of their insulin everywhere else, and that's why it was getting so expensive. It was a dirty deal between Lilly and Walmart.

The reason I wrote this story is to point out what would happen if drug companies would be pressured into lowering their prices; they would only increase their prices on their other products, or on the same product if let's say the deal was made for Medicare only. We would still be paying.

It's like Commie Care--cost shifting, but no real solution.

One of the differences is that Walmart is structured so that it can PASS ON the savings that it negotiated to consumers. You don't know what deals WalGreens/CVS/RiteAid have or what they take off the top. But they could never pass AS MUCH of the savings on to you. I'm sure they also have "deals".

Insurance companies also beat up the Pharmas and retailers. The insurance cost is typically less than a 1/3 of the "retail cost" at the pharmacy counter for the uninsured..

What is needed is stop with the special deals. Put consumers back into seeking the lowest price and let the retailers compete for the business. It's like reading the coverage bill from you last visit. Doctor ASKED for $225, the insurance company ALLOWED $95 and you're responsible for the deductible, copay, and OOP. So if you walked in WITHOUT insurance -- the bill would be twice. If enough consumers bargained for terms directly, You'd get that visit for $95 without paying the insurers to go beat the doctors up for you..

 

[initforme]

Insurance companies can deny paying members services. That is wrong.

 

[flacaltenn]

I pretty sure that the insurers already beat the crap out of Pharma and the retailers for reductions.

If you're gonna "negotiate" --- that's gotta be for each drug individually. Because SOME drugs are only applicable to 10,000 patients or less. You start beating on THOSE drugs -- and folks are gonna die. Because NO pharma will bring a low-volume drug to the market. Another example of socialists not understanding how stuff really works.

It's always a fictional view of a perfectly simple world, where stuff just magically gets willed into existence and costs whatever "good folks with the best intentions" want them to cost.

The future is really in "custom drugs".. Targeted to characteristics of your genome. So this "negotiation" is gonna cost a trainload if it's done for 10 or 100 patients at a time..

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic with crap insurance so I pay for all my medications with cash.

Insulin kept getting more and more expensive and I couldn't figure out why. I called the manufacturer, searched the internet, but could get no satisfactory answer. Then I stumbled on it:

I asked a pharmacist about it at my grocery store, and she couldn't give me an answer either, but she did say that Walmart had a generic insulin for much cheaper. I'm not crazy about taking Walmart insulin, so I discarded the idea.

When the prices increased again, I went to investigate. What I found is that this generic insulin was not generic at all. It was made by Lilly--the same manufacture of the insulin I was using, but put an ® on the package to identify Walmart's generic drug company name--Reliance.

It was less than half the price I was paying for my insulin, but made by the exact same people. I'm still purchasing it today. So what happened?

What happened is that Walmart cornered Lilly into selling their insulin cheaper because Walmart has a huge prescription customer base. Lilly in return increased the price of their insulin everywhere else, and that's why it was getting so expensive. It was a dirty deal between Lilly and Walmart.

The reason I wrote this story is to point out what would happen if drug companies would be pressured into lowering their prices; they would only increase their prices on their other products, or on the same product if let's say the deal was made for Medicare only. We would still be paying.

It's like Commie Care--cost shifting, but no real solution.

Sorry about your situation, but Lily may be compared to the extortionist who peddles "insurance"......Have you ever wondered why European countries do not succumb to such tactics?

Insurance companies do one thing: pay the bills. That's it. They do nothing different than our government does with our social programs. In fact, our government has hired private insurance to do their billing for them because they are so efficient at it.

Until Commie Care came along, health insurance companies made a reasonable profit, but not record profits like companies outside of the healthcare industry. They were between 2% and 9% I believe.

Insurance companies are not the major problem with healthcare costs.

Actually -- they have wrestled the doctors, other providers and pharma into submission. Doctors no longer are "raking it in" and many are retiring early.. Then you get a Sanders that comes along and PRETENDS that the govt is more competent at arm-twisting. And I guess they are if they can THREATEN your business.

But it's not like the Insurance companies aren't screwing the doctors, hospitals and even big Pharma every chance they get. Since O-care -- Tenn has been taken over by BlueCrossBlueShield. Effectively now a monopoly. Can raise prices all they want. And tell doctors to just bang it if they won't take their reimbursement rates.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I pretty sure that the insurers already beat the crap out of Pharma and the retailers for reductions.

If you're gonna "negotiate" --- that's gotta be for each drug individually. Because SOME drugs are only applicable to 10,000 patients or less. You start beating on THOSE drugs -- and folks are gonna die. Because NO pharma will bring a low-volume drug to the market. Another example of socialists not understanding how stuff really works.

It's always a fictional view of a perfectly simple world, where stuff just magically gets willed into existence and costs whatever "good folks with the best intentions" want them to cost.

The future is really in "custom drugs".. Targeted to characteristics of your genome. So this "negotiation" is gonna cost a trainload if it's done for 10 or 100 patients at a time..

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic with crap insurance so I pay for all my medications with cash.

Insulin kept getting more and more expensive and I couldn't figure out why. I called the manufacturer, searched the internet, but could get no satisfactory answer. Then I stumbled on it:

I asked a pharmacist about it at my grocery store, and she couldn't give me an answer either, but she did say that Walmart had a generic insulin for much cheaper. I'm not crazy about taking Walmart insulin, so I discarded the idea.

When the prices increased again, I went to investigate. What I found is that this generic insulin was not generic at all. It was made by Lilly--the same manufacture of the insulin I was using, but put an ® on the package to identify Walmart's generic drug company name--Reliance.

It was less than half the price I was paying for my insulin, but made by the exact same people. I'm still purchasing it today. So what happened?

What happened is that Walmart cornered Lilly into selling their insulin cheaper because Walmart has a huge prescription customer base. Lilly in return increased the price of their insulin everywhere else, and that's why it was getting so expensive. It was a dirty deal between Lilly and Walmart.

The reason I wrote this story is to point out what would happen if drug companies would be pressured into lowering their prices; they would only increase their prices on their other products, or on the same product if let's say the deal was made for Medicare only. We would still be paying.

It's like Commie Care--cost shifting, but no real solution.

One of the differences is that Walmart is structured so that it can PASS ON the savings that it negotiated to consumers. You don't know what deals WalGreens/CVS/RiteAid have or what they take off the top. But they could never pass AS MUCH of the savings on to you. I'm sure they also have "deals".

Insurance companies also beat up the Pharmas and retailers. The insurance cost is typically less than a 1/3 of the "retail cost" at the pharmacy counter for the uninsured..

What is needed is stop with the special deals. Put consumers back into seeking the lowest price and let the retailers compete for the business. It's like reading the coverage bill from you last visit. Doctor ASKED for $225, the insurance company ALLOWED $95 and you're responsible for the deductible, copay, and OOP. So if you walked in WITHOUT insurance -- the bill would be twice. If enough consumers bargained for terms directly, You'd get that visit for $95 without paying the insurers to go beat the doctors up for you..

I disagree because I'm a truck driver, and I have first hand information on how Walmart works because we have customers that make products for them.

Walmart is constantly hounding their suppliers for lower prices. Walmart is huge in this country, and when they say jump, you ask how high?

In response to Walmart demands, our customers who manufacture products for Walmart go down the line to hound the suppliers that they depend on to make parts for their products.

It's like an assembly line. Our customer makes widgets. But they don't make the entire widget, they only make the plastic housing. The parts that go onto the housing are made by other companies. Then they may need foam for the widgets, so they search for the cheapest foam manufacturers either here or abroad because that's what Walmart demands.

This is what I believe what happened in the Lilly case. If Lilly didn't find a way to give Walmart a huge deal, then Walmart would seek other companies that would cater to their demands.