| People don't REALLY care what the price is, because they have this magic thing called "insurance". If drugs (and the entire medical industry) was priced so middle class people could pay it out of pocket (obviously non catastrophic / emergency) people would really push back when prices went up, unlike you see today. It is insurace companies that ENABLE the Pharm comanies to set prices so high. Right, insurance pays for drugs. Welcome to highschool economics. This just in: not everyone who needs drugs has insurance. Pharm companies set the prices and they are 100% to blame for the high prices. Yes, they are milking the insurance companies, but they are also screwing people who don't have insurance. Insurance companies have no regulatory privileges, so they cannot control what the pharm companies do. Come on Kenny you (or your programming) are smarter than that simple line of reasoning you are trying to feed me above. Before you criticize someone's intelligence, please (a) try to make sense and (b) use proper grammar. What does programming have to do with this subject? I brush my teeth everyday too, maybe should have mentioned that as well. Yes, liabilities play a (small) part of the increase that is undeniable, but the insurance model in practice today has enabled the incredibled the gross profits seen in hospitals and the pharm companies all over the country. I'd like to respond, but I honestly have no idea what you just said. You don't seem to really grasp the problem of the matter. Insurance companies don't have regulatory oversight of the pharm companies. They could push for legislation, but the pharm companies have much more sway in Washington. The problem isn't the insurance companies paying for the drugs, it's the pharm companies abusing the system. Drugs didn't always cost an arm and a leg, the pharm companies slowly built an economy for themselves off of the insurance companies. The insurance companies can't exactly stop paying for drugs, people will die, and unless the effort is one of complete solidarity, customers will jump ship to whatever company will pay for their drugs. Either way, the pharm companies still get their money. To put pressure on them, the insurance companies would have to make a move that would effectively kill some of their customers. That's hardly a palatable solution. Then you've got a bunch of dead people and a bunch of dead insurance companies. The solution is for the pharm companies to become more responsible and get their self-regulation up to par. They'll never do that, so perhaps a government regulatory body should step up to the plate.
Recursively Yours,
Kenny...
PETZ Member #5
SteamyZ. Never had did me wrong. - SL103 07/06/04 11:58:15
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