patrick.net

Grubbered as FUCK!

Daraprim price hike now 2,500%

"Doxycycline hyclate (100 milligrams), a widely used antibiotic, soared from $20 for 500 capsules in October 2013 to a staggering $1,849 in April 2014.

Glycopyrrolate (20 milliliters), used during surgery to prevent slowing of the heart rate, climbed from $65 for 10 vials to $1,277 during the same period.

Pravastatin sodium (10 mg), the cholesterol medication...surged from $27 to $196 for a one-year supply."

Note that drug prices are spiking only among Rx drugs covered by mandatory insurance programs, e.g. Obamneycare. Among OTC drugs, where customers can compare alternatives on store shelves and buy whatever they want, prices remain low.

"Americans are good shoppers if given the chance and the financial incentive. We've seen this time and time again when patients pay for care themselves. Elderly Americans are the ones who tipped most of the country off to the excessive cost of prescription drugs when, despite government disapproval, they boarded buses to buy their drugs cheaper in Canada. Americans also manage to pay the lowest prices in the world, by far, for over-the-counter drugs, whose prices are known. Efficient walk-in clinics run by nurse practitioners with reasonable published prices are gaining traction among consumers. And prices for cosmetic surgery and LASIK procedures that patients pay for themselves have fallen even as the technology has gotten better."

In all other sectors, advancing technology results in better value. In the mandatory subsidized insurance sector, it results in higher prices, because that is what the legislation is designed to do. It operates as designed, on behalf of its authors: the revenue recipients.

The patients are just as much to blame by taking the worthless drugs. especially when the bill isn't acceptable at the pharmacy.

And they continue to hike prices without any restraint. I was just prescribed a med by Kaiser (the first med I've been prescribed in years) and quite disappointed to find that they wanted $190. I already knew it sells for only 10 pounds in England (about $14), so I just refused to buy it at Kaiser for $190 and did a little research. There is no patent remaining, so generics are available and it ought to be damn cheap.

A website called GoodRx said I could get it at Walgreens for $48 with their coupon. I called Walgreens (takes about 10 minutes to get a human each time you call) and they confirmed that they would take the coupon and give me the price "within about $10". So I took an hour to get the prescription transferred from Kaiser to Walgreens, at which point they said that they actually wanted $103 with the coupon, but that this was a bargain anyway since it would be $250 without it.

Ugh, back to the starting line.

Then I found https://www.canadadrugs.com/ which wants only $43.

They look legit enough that I made an account, uploaded a copy of the prescription, and mailed them an check for $43. I'm determined not to give American drug companies any money. They corrupt our government to fleece us all. Maybe it's really their government and we just don't know it.

Drug makers have been getting their $2.3 billion worth in Washington. That is how much they have spent lobbying Congress over the last decade. It may help explain why no legislative proposal to rein in rising prescription prices has gone anywhere.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/business/dealbook/rising-drug-prices-put-big-pharmas-lobbying-to-the-test.html

We need a list of Congressmen to vote against because they are on the take. Hopefully not every single Congressman will be on the list.