“This was an unexpected victory in a long fight against an illegal cartel of three corporations who have raised their insulin prices in lockstep.”
The Biden Administration pleasantly stunned health care reform advocates Tuesday by including short-acting insulin in its list of 10 drugs for which Medicare will negotiate lower prices, power vested in the White House by the Inflation Reduction Act.
The IRA was passed in the face of one of the heftiest barrages of lobbying in congressional history, with the pharmaceutical industry spending more than $700 million over 2021 and 2022 — several times more than the second- and third-ranking industries — much of it aimed at stopping the legislation, watering it down, or undermining its implementation.
They need to find a way to negotiate the price down for everyone, not just retirees. Kids need insulin.
And after that, epi pens.
Here’s some good news about that with California making its own insulins:
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/19/1164572757/california-contract-cheap-insulin-calrx
That is really great news. Thanks!
I wish the process would be repeated by the federal government, for every similar drug that could be produced with their patent’s expiration.
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I’ve always wondered why those that might need an epinephrine shot don’t keep a vial and needle on hand. A vial of epinephrine goes for about $35. No judgement, just genuinely curious.
You ever try to draw from a syringe while you’re hypotensive, gasping for breath, and panicking as you’re about to pass out? That’s the primary innovation of the epi-pen. Remove cap, stab through clothes, press button.
Granted, syringe and vial would be better than not having epinephrine though.
You can prefill the needle and keep it in a pencil case. Syringes work fine through clothes, although not ideal.
I’m an insulin dependent (T1) diabetic. I keep a glucagon kit on hand in case of an emergency. It’s a syringe and vial that needs to be mixed. The idea is that if you’re unconscious, someone that is close can administer. If I were severely hypoglycemic I’d have problems, but my partner wouldn’t. I could pull it off if it were prefilled, but you can’t prefill glucagon.
Edit: I totally get it and agree though. Life saving medicine shouldn’t have any barriers.
You have to be careful about what tissue you put the epinephrine in. If you don’t hit the right tissue, it can not function or cause you to go into tachycardia. When your brain is also potentially not working super great due to low blood pressure (the shock part of anaphylactic shock), it’s best to have a point and click interface.
The problem is the government can’t set the price of goods in a private contract between two non-government entities, which is what would need to happen. The various bills you see in states setting co-pay caps is about as close as we can get, and that only happens because the government CAN regulate insurance companies and the policies they offer. While that might, eventually, put pressure on the insurance companies to demand lower prices from the manufacturers, it’s a long way disconnected from the price paid by the patient.
And regulating copays doesn’t help people without insurance at all.
That’s why this is such an important step. When prescription coverage was added to Medicare, the ability of the government to negotiate drug prices was specifically striped from the bill. The Inflation Reduction Act added it back, finally. And it’s a huge win. Medicare and Medicaid are enormous programs, and when they throw their weight around, they can affect the markets they’re in dramatically. It’s why the drug companies are already filing suit.
But the real solution isn’t trying to force private insurance companies to play ball, or make drug manufacturers sell at a low price, it’s to leverage that giant market pressure and expand Medicare eligibility to everyone. And if you’re worried about funding? Don’t be. Unlike social security, Medicare’s tax has no maximum wage.
What about IRS? I mean they should report taxes. So if they refuse money they report they are getting paid, then it is low-hanging tax fraud. Probably. At least in Europe it would be.
Laws aren’t real. The government isn’t real. Money isn’t real.
You’re not listing good reasons. Just trite bullshit.
What did @evatronic@lemm.ee specifically say that’s not factually true?
Uh… What?
Laws are absolutely real, and this is a testable theory. Go break a law and put in no effort to hide what you’ve done. See what happens.
What you mean to say is that we can change laws, and that’s true. To do that, you’d need to elect more representatives, nationally, who agree with you - because the government is also very real.
You live in the real world, whether you like it or not.
There was fringe on the flag!