I understand that insurances covers part of the cost. However, the total cost (before coverage) is still much higher in America. Why?
Is the supply chain different? Are doctors and staff paid better in America?
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“U.S. prices were 256 percent of those in the 32 comparison countries combined. In comparisons with individual countries, U.S. prices ranged from 170 percent of prices in Mexico to 779 percent of prices in Turkey.” https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/international-prescription-drug-price-comparisons
US decided a couple things to make this happen. In 1981 or so, the Baylor-Dole act said private companies can own public university research. All that drug research, done at universities, belongs to the drug companies, and the drug companies can pick and choose which research comes to light, so only the favorable stuff does.
During the Bush administration Congress said medicare, the biggest drug buyer, could not negotiate prices.
Drug companies ply, bribe, and sell to doctors, who then prescribe pills to whoever bought them some pens or sent them on a vacation for “CME”. The doctors and the drug dealers have an interest in people being sick, just sick enough to pay. For evidence of this, see the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma, who used these tactics to create the opioid epidemic.
With so much money at stake, druggies can easily buy politicians to make the rules in their favor.
Insurance companies also bought politicians, who made it so there is a fine if you don’t buy insurance. Insurance skims 10% or more off of all US healthcare spending.
In the US, people with the money make the rules, and the rules are made so they keep making money.
The other side of this, is that every life in the US is worth something like $2M. so if you even touch someone, and they die, you’re on the hook for $2M. Everything has to be super safe to avoid this. A hospital can’t just buy an outlet for the wall, it has to be medical grade, meaning the people that made and sold the outlet charged enough that they can stand some lawsuits.
In the US we can’t let people die. 90% of healthcare spending is done by 10% of the people. We’ll spend zillions to get one more year out of a cancer patient lying in bed. We can’t have “death panels” to consider what treatments etc. are best on a population macro economic scale, it is all about who can pay. If it is you faced with death, you’ll go to great ends for that last year, esp. when it is other people paying.
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