>>You're operating under a misconception. When Canadians come to the United States for care, the bills are paid by Canadian Medicare
Only with approval, which means often it is not.<<
What are the stats on that? How often is "often?"
>>On the subject of pharmaceutical companies, do you really believe that there wouldn't be enough profit in new drugs to motivate them to do research if people in the US weren't paying more than anybody else in the world?
The question makes it seem that its a binary thing, either you have enough money or you do not. It doesn't work that way, with no research until X profit is reached and then you get massive research. Its not a perfectly smooth curve either, but its much closer to that than simply "enough", or "not enough" in one step. The more profitable researching, developing, testing, and paying the other start up costs for new drugs is, the more drug development you will get. If you significantly reduce the profitability, than you will reduce the development by a significant (but impossible to precisely determine) amount.<<
One thing is very clear. Because most drugs are paid for by insurance companies here, pharmaceutical companies find a ready market for seven hundred dollar pills (I'm talking apiece) and five hundred dollar ointments (like one I recently picked up from the pharmacy to treat an 8 year old's psoriasis.) Having such a great market for very, very expensive drugs gives them ample motivation to produce them, but very little motivation to produce inexpensive ones. |
