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2   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2019 Nov 27, 4:35am  

Is disability insurance super expensive in private industry?

I seriously have no clue. I’ve been paying for it for a couple decades. Co workers who didn’t have been deep up shit creek. You don’t expect anything to happen but if it does.....

Can’t be that expensive right? Several co workers have Aflac or other....
3   HeadSet   2019 Nov 27, 5:38am  

Do not smoke

Catastrophic health insurance.

These are better solutions than the single payer you are hinting at.
4   CBOEtrader   2019 Nov 27, 6:06am  

In a related story, 25% of millenials lose their life savings every lala.

(How much did these people have saved?)

The reason I ask is these articles are fodder for "medicare for all" which is always represented to the public as medicaid (i.e. free everything).

Use fear of bankruptcy => implement more crony policies => run off w trillions of taxpayer wealth for big crony business.
5   Onvacation   2019 Nov 27, 7:39am  

tovarichpeter says
Half of cancer patients lose life savings

The other half lose their lives.
6   FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden   2019 Nov 27, 7:49am  

Cancer gets everyone it can.

Onvacation says
tovarichpeter says
Half of cancer patients lose life savings

The other half lose their lives.
7   Booger   2019 Nov 27, 5:53pm  

Tough shit!!

I agree that treating cancer is too fucking expensive, but cancer rates can be greatly reduced, or possibly eliminated from the gene pool by not treating it.
8   Ceffer   2019 Nov 27, 6:46pm  

Idiots haven't even figured out how to get the life savings of the other half.
9   Patrick   2019 Nov 27, 7:06pm  

Man, what a great business model! Pay me whatever I say or die. Secret prices! No shopping! No market forces to limit profits!
10   porkchopXpress   2019 Nov 27, 7:30pm  

Cancer patients should stop going to Vegas
12   SunnyvaleCA   2019 Nov 28, 5:43pm  

Half of cancer patience lose life savings ... the other half lose their lives!
13   just_passing_through   2019 Nov 28, 9:50pm  

Okay sometimes I post stuff and only leave it up for awhile because it's possibly identifying info. I did it again but this time I'll leave this: I highly recommend when we stick it to the drug companies we don't go all socialist and set prices unless it's generic drugs. Not cancer etc., because if so we're stuck with what we've got from centuries of what was passed down from grandma, followed by a 100 years of so of drug screening (throw darts, see what seems to stick for some unknown reason) right when we've finally got the blue prints for life and cheap tech to use it.

It's the fucking generics where we need the price controls and the hammer brought down.

Anyone notice when the manufacturing moved from places like Texas, the North East, Switzerland and Germany to India and now fucking China. But the prices didn't drop?

China has been sending us poison, it gets reported but if just seems to fade out of the news.

I went to the RiteAid last month and asked the pharmacist how much more I'd have to pay for brand name. He had to look it up but said he didn't stock it. He said all of his drugs are generic. "Nobody buys brand name anymore"

Don't fuck with the funding flow for the new stuff my fellow humans. Allow for a decent patent life so we continue to get newer stuff. Just like TVs and cell phones. It's happening despite the fact that it's not something obvious you see your pal carrying around or on the wall at Best Buy.
14   HeadSet   2019 Nov 30, 5:16pm  

Allow for a decent patent life so we continue to get newer stuff.

+1000. No one will invest millions to develop new drugs if some clown determines the price can only be the raw materials used to make the final pill, with no recoup of investment.
15   Patrick   2019 Nov 30, 5:30pm  

Most drug company budgets are spent on marketing and lobbying, not research.

The real drug research is done at public expense in universities and at government agencies like the NIH.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-pharmaceutical-companies-are-spending-far-more-on-marketing-than-research/
16   HeadSet   2019 Nov 30, 7:26pm  

The real drug research is done at public expense in universities and at government agencies like the NIH.

If so, them how would drug companies own the patents? (There is a paywall on your link).
17   just_passing_through   2019 Nov 30, 10:30pm  

I've heard that shit a lot. Look, maybe that's true with Pharma. Or lets say more true. Biotechs are a new animal and that's where the new stuff comes from. Most big Pharma these days are just bankers/holding companies.

And please, don't get me started on academics trying to 'produce' something. Yeah they'll take your money. haha
18   just_passing_through   2019 Nov 30, 10:44pm  

Okay, here is an example Pat. Academia does produce some very useful basic research most of which isn't worth much but there are times where it is and times where it's era-changing.

Case in point: The last big thing I can remember coming from academia was the human genome project. It involved gobs (a few billion) and years (about 15) to figure out the human genome code. It was going to take much longer and much greater expense if industry hadn't gotten involved. They were really dragging their asses.

Celera and Applied Biosystems stepped in as did other biotechs like Incyte Genomics (I was there) and we sped things up tremendously and made it a bit cheaper.

Then what did the NIH and academia do in proportion to that? Nothing. That was back in 2003.

As I type this Illumina developed tech to read full (nearly) genomes in several hours for $1,000. Remember, vs. 15 years and 3 billion. That's huge that's changed everything and they sell that tech to Pharma, biotech, FBI, the zoo, you name it.

That human genome work we all paid for is freely available too! Go check out the UCSC genome browser. It's not like you too can't go round up some venture capital and get your own thing going (in theory). So we got what we paid for and way more.

Granted, NIH buys from Illumina now too for whatever it is they're doing. But hurting companies that don't deserve it, Pharma or otherwise would actually hurt Illumina and other companies like it that are driving innovation in the health care space. These are knock-on affects.

So we should be careful that's all. A very clear target are generics. I'm blown away by the scandals where some joker buys up a patent then jacks the price up 10,000% or whatever. We need to go after those! And find out why generics are so fucking expensive. Way more so than they should be even if they were made here.
19   just_passing_through   2019 Dec 4, 8:35pm  

This is bad:

www.youtube.com/embed/9CdydQNfAXE

An example of band-names to attack as well. There is no reason on earth insulin shouldn't be as cheap as a decent vodka by now. The patent life they get from tweaking a molecule shouldn't be a blocker either. So what. That shouldn't stop competition. But for some reason that hasn't happened. Until these guys and their open source deal.

I mean any old pharma or biotech could make their own version of insulin (or use an older one) and under-cut these damn bankers no? Why not? Pay attention to what they say about the FDA. The FDA is a fucking bureaucratic nightmare and needs to be de-fanged.

Trump has actually already started to do that. If I recall some executive order called, "The right to try", or something like that. It's a tiny dent but it gives people who have no other options to go for broke.
20   zzyzzx   2019 Dec 5, 12:33pm  

just_dregalicious says
There is no reason on earth insulin shouldn't be as cheap as a decent vodka by now.


It's $25 a vial at WalMart already. How much cheaper are you expecting it to get? Avatar cat has been taking it for at least 5 years.
21   just_passing_through   2019 Dec 5, 12:37pm  

No kidding? I was just using the info from the video.

Probably cheaper for cats?
22   Onvacation   2019 Dec 5, 1:49pm  

HEYYOU says
No one is ever harmed under Trumpcare

There is no Trumpcare. And Obamacare was just a scam to make insurance companies more money.
23   zzyzzx   2019 Dec 6, 7:08am  

just_dregalicious says

Probably cheaper for cats?


No. Walmart charges the same for the insulin no matter what it's being used for. Of course his dose is really small by human standards, so one vial lasts many months. Which brings me to my next point, is that the cheap stuff from Walmart doesn't go bad after about a month like the more expensive stuff either.

They make cat specific insulin:
http://www.prozinc.us/

Last time I checked it was $125/vial. And after about a month it's effectiveness really seemed to drop off. $125/month for cat insulin is simply too much. With the cheap stuff from WalMart, I can use up the whole bottle, even if it's 8 months or more to finish it up.
24   Goran_K   2019 Dec 6, 7:21am  

CBOEtrader says
In a related story, 25% of millenials lose their life savings every lala.

(How much did these people have saved?)

The reason I ask is these articles are fodder for "medicare for all" which is always represented to the public as medicaid (i.e. free everything).

Use fear of bankruptcy => implement more crony policies => run off w trillions of taxpayer wealth for big crony business.


You forgot the other half; get left with shitty rationed solution that still let’s lots of people die anyway, e.g - UK, France, and Canada.

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