I just got back from the pharmacist - picked up a prescription for some skin cream to treat psoriasis. When I balked at the price ($40.00), the pharmacist informed me that it was actually much more expensive than that. The $40.00 was just my copay. They tube of cream (maybe two months worth) actually cost $389. She acted like I should feel fortunate that I was getting an awesome high-dollar medicine for "only" 40 dollars. I was furious. Nevermind that I have to get permission from a long list of middlemen (the government, my doctor, my insurance company) just to buy some ******* skin cream. But some rent-seeking pharmaceutical company is playing the regulation game to make insane profits.
In an actual free market, of course, no one would pay $400 for a tube of skin cream. And no insurance company would cover such an expense. And prices for that shit would come down.
Thanks Obama!
Healthcare and health insurance are ‘screwed up’ because we’re victims of our own success.
50 years ago one could afford to pay out-of-pocket for a doctor’s visit; one could afford to pay for health insurance.
In those days health insurance was like homeowner’s insurance or car insurance: something one would likely never use; it was
insurance.
Then came advancements in medical technology, science, and treatments – there was a surgery for everything, therapy for everything, and a pill for everything.
And we live longer but in poor chronic health.
With all these advancements came higher costs, bigger profits, and millions of Americans unable to afford access to healthcare.
Health ‘insurance’ became health ‘maintenance’ – most Americans cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket for a doctor’s visit; health ‘insurance’ became something most Americans need to see a doctor, get an x-ray, CT scan, blood tests, out-patient treatment, and the half-dozen or so pills Americans take each day.
Big Pharma and the medical industry are anti-‘free’ market, immune from its anachronistic, feckless ‘regulatory’ regime.
