With the help of taxpayers’
dollars in the forms of grants, many medical products, procedures and drugs
are developed. Many of the
products and procedures can save and dramatically improve the lives of men,
women and children with severe and heartbreaking conditions. Now comes the
pricing.
Although tax dollars made these breakthroughs and devices
possible, no part of the profits will be paid to the American taxpayers. We are
forced investors and are promised that should the company make a profit we will
receive no return on our investment. Instead, the companies will keep all of
the profits. Pricing? These items will be priced at the highest level paid by
Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies.
You’ve seen the ads on TV. “No cost to you and we will work
directly with Medicare.” These leeches get paid by the taxpayer coming and
going! No cost to you? It is a cost to every taxpayer.
The most tragic result is that children with sever
disabilities around the world cannot afford the cost of life-changing
equipment.
Some of these companies refuse to post their prices or to
even provide their prices unless you visit them. The prices are so unfair that
they are ashamed to post them.
Let’s talk medicine. Have you noticed that many times a
pharmacy will not tell you the cost of a prescription drug? You must tell them
if you have insurance, Medicaid, etc.
Try asking, “Can you just tell me the cost without insurance?” and then
present them with a Medicaid card. They will hit the roof! They price to the max
and suck out as many tax dollars as possible. The cost of medicine should not
change. The cost of my co-pay is not the issue. They raise the actual price to
whatever the insurance or Medicaid will pay. Then we wonder why taxes and insurance premiums are so high.
The people in other industrialized countries pay 50% less for health care than Americans and they are outliving us.
Supply and demand in the world of medicine is sinful. For
example, there is less demand for drugs that suppress HIV in most industrialized
countries than in Africa. So the Swiss can purchase these life saving drugs at a small percentage of the cost for the exact same drugs in any African nation,
where AIDS is wiping out nations.
Hospitals cannot (will not) explain how they determine
prices. There are huge differences in cost for identical procedures in Texas
and Baltimore and Miami. Why? Why should the cost of a CAT scan differ by such
huge amounts?
The bloodsucking ticks involved in health-care are the
problem. Costs of health-care are the problem. Why should we pay 50% more for
health-care than people in other nations? Obama got it wrong. We should be attacking
the cost of health care instead of arguing about who pays. I am tired of
paying, especially at both ends. I pay to create the miracle drug and then pay
a fortune for the drug. If
congress wants to reduce the cost of health care (not simply subsidize it) I am
first in line to vote.
