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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (459267)	2/25/2009 11:24:02 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573502

So our system is designed to subsidize drug prices for the rest of the world? It is a fact of life that if you live in a country that has the highest standard of living in the world you're going to pay more for drugs than any other place in the world. Because American people can afford, better than any other country in the world, to pay more for life saving drugs that simply would not be used in other countries. In the United States, we use groundbreaking new drugs (translation: The most expensive drugs in existence) for whatever marginal benefit might be derived to help save extend lives. In other countries, they just LET THEM DIE. Because the drugs are too expensive. Of course we subsidize drug prices for the rest of the world - because we're willing to pay top dollar to try and save lives, other countries that could NEVER, EVER have had these drugs eventually get to use them. But we get them first. Prozac is a great example. At first, it was used predominantly in the United States because it was outrageously expensive. A person in Africa probably couldn't have afforded it. Today, the development costs are recovered, and that drug is available to anyone anywhere the world at a cost of a few pennies. So, of course we subsidize it. It is part of having the best health care system in the world. Others benefit from your knowledge. In the early days of computers, we always had everything first. Now, the entire world benefits. Nothing new about that.