this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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The price was bullshit to begin with. The cream probably sells over the counter for about $2.50 in most other countries, so OP still ended up paying 10x the price.
Its a tax scheme.
The pharmacy claims this medication is worth $275, insurance covers $40, and then they get as much as they can out of the patient while claiming the rest as a loss they can write off on their taxes.
US healthcare is stupid.
You should really be replacing ~~stupid~~ with "evil"
That's fucking evil and the cunts should be held accountable for their evil
But yous won't cos you're pussies
I’d say US healthcare is toxic, and behaves despicably toward those in its care. It’s also inefficient and often counterproductive.
All of this is a result of stupidity and evil, coming both from outside the industry, as well as perpetually generated by the already-ill structure of the industry.
It warps the minds of those who join it, as customers, providers, and regulators. We’re all like software devs loyal to the terrible architecture of a bad codebase due to having to adapt to it to get anything done.
Fucked up systems fuck people up.
Nope. It's consequential. They need to raise their shareholder value in any way that's legal, even if it's not morally right. If they won't do that, they'd get into trouble. For corporations tax loopholes are there to be exploited.
Making those loopholes illegal is what will fix this. Then you can call it good craftsmanship by politicians. Right now you can barley call it shoddy.
Health is an easy thing to jerk people around with because most of the people you're stepping on are literally too weak to fight back.
It looks like the pharmacies do not get the tax write offs, if any. It’s the drug manufacturers who get to double dip by charging insurers for whatever they’re willing to cover, and then write off the rest causing tax payers to foot the bill.
Regardless, I agree with the article that there needs to be legislation that both bans these type of “shell game” programs, and capping the price of medications. And for what it’s worth, I don’t care if that means companies don’t make as much money. They’ll still make money, and the drugs do not actually cost that much to make.
It's also a scheme for the pharmacies to get as much as they can from the insurance companies.
It’s not the pharmacies that set the prices. At least, not really. The pharmacy pays near the listed “cash-price” for the drug from the wholesaler, who buys from the manufacturer, so the pharmacy can’t really afford to charge much less than they do for many drugs.
And the price the patient sees after insurance is decided based on the insurance or pharmacy benefit manager who deals with prescription benefits for the insurance.
Pharmacies are also contractually prevented from charging less to a cash-paying patient than what they charge to the insurance companies, so you start getting weirdness with coupon cards to work around that.
The benefits managers are in on it with both the insurance and pharmacies. When you choose insurance in the US, there’s only one pharmacy brand that you get good benefits at. The drug prices at the others are either insane or not covered at all.
You misspelled tax ‘scam’…
That's not how tax write off losses work.
That just sounds like fraud with extra steps.
Yeah, it makes sense if you think of it like Skyrim Horse Armour except with life saving drugs. They'll take as much money from you as they think they can get away with.
Yup. This price is at least partially distorted by the fact that she can’t just go buy the cream without getting a prescription first. That means tight control over distribution, meaning huge barriers to entry and being forced to play ball with this insurance system when someone does enter.
There’s no way for the market to create that simple channel from this medicine to those who need it at the natural market price which is quite low.
All these elements that aren’t naturally required, but are required by law to be part of the deal, cause the price to get weird.
Sort of like hospital bills now. My wife went to the E.R. 2 months ago. They billed the insurance $4K. The insurance said nope and paid $220. We paid $40.