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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (13302)	2/7/2010 6:25:02 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

of course its at our expense.. the drug is priced higher because they know in other countries they cannot get the marginal profit so they inflate costs in america to meet objectives. your example is weak using africa. lets just give it away and add .40cents more to our cost. we need international countries to demonstrate some responsibility to R&D for new drugs by not being the bully with price control. We should adopt some type of national pricing structure to be fair to all consumers and the industry.

To: i-node who wrote (13302)	2/7/2010 6:40:38 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 42652

Now, someone in Africa says, "Gosh, we could use that Drug X, but there is just no way we could be paying $2.00/dose; there just isn't that kind of money available. If you could sell if for $0.40 a dose, that would be different". Switch "Africa" to France and how well does your argument hold water.

To: i-node who wrote (13302)	2/7/2010 9:16:28 AM
From: skinowski	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

I understand your point, and agree. My grievance is with those national socialized healthcare systems of wealthy industrialized nations, who demand the same deal as poor African nations, and leave it to others to carry the load. In a sense, they force "others" (read, us) to carry the load.

To: i-node who wrote (13302)	2/7/2010 12:02:53 PM
From: Alastair McIntosh	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42652

In effect, higher US drug prices are a form of foreign aid. I understand this view but I'm not sure it really is like foreign aid. Your post is good start to countering the irrational claims of foreign aid, free riding, subsidizing the rest of the world, etc. What seems to be overlooked in these discussions is that the drug companies are quite happy with differential pricing. It is a profit maximizing strategy common in industries with large fixed costs and is natural outcome of profit seeking behaviour. Differential pricing by drug companies is not just inter-country. There are large differences in prices for different groups in the U.S. as well. Large HMOs and pharmacy benefit managers are able to obtain large discounts (similar to those negotiated by Canadian Provinces) compared to consumers with unmanaged drug coverage or without insurance. Different prices will emerge anywhere that markets can be separated into groups with differing willingness to pay. This benefits both suppliers and purchasers. To demonstrate why companies with low marginal costs use differential pricing consider the airline industry. There is no direct benefit to an airline to require buying tickets 14 days in advance, staying over a Saturday night, etc. They only do this to separate low from high willingness to pay customers. If they couldn't price differentially airline travel would be reduced and tickets would significantly more expensive. Same with pharmaceuticals. Differential pricing expands the market, decreases costs per unit sold and tends to lower prices for all consumers.