<p>There was a thread about some college plans playing for the change. Yup.
Even the alternative drugs for hep c are seriously expensive. </p>
<p>Says Solvadi expires in 2025, 2028, 2029- depending on which patent. ?</p>
<p>I;m not going to a currency converter, but the article used USD.</p>
<p>“We live in California, not some place like Alabama.”</p>
<p>The difference between San Francisco and in some parts of Southern Ca may be on a par with the example you cited.</p>
<p>How many people can afford this drug and have hepatitus c? </p>
<p>Almost nobody.</p>
<p>Gild has costs over $13 billion for this drug. They have 10 to 15 years to get a great return. Maybe less if there is competition.</p>
<p>GP, you just called s few of my friends hypocrites. That isnt nice. :)</p>
<p>You have conservative friends?</p>
<p>I do. Of course I do. </p>
<p>Last week I went to a party. It was supposed to be 4 conservatives and 4 liberals. One conservative got sick. the point of the party was just friends getting together. </p>
<p>However, I have never been called a socialist so much in my life. I had no idea I was in favor of a wealth tax and 80 percent tax rates. Lol </p>
<p>After the party, one of my conservative friends came up to me and said, “dstark, ok my real name, you were right. You cant say Obamacare is going to bankrupt the country if you dont know the numbers.”. ;)</p>
<p>I had no idea we were going to talk politics at this party. I thought we were going to play table tennis.</p>
<p>LF, I loved your link describing issues for the states. Paying 220 billion for this drug is a lot of money. More than Obamacare costs in a year.</p>
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<p>Wow. When your company proposes to double the entire cost of drugs for a whole country just so people can pay for your one drug, you are inviting a lot of regulatory scrutiny.</p>
<p>Yeah… That is a little much. :)</p>
<p>“You can’t say Obamacare is going to bankrupt the country if you dont know the numbers.”</p>
<p>Yeah, but you can’t say it won’t either.</p>
<p>“I had no idea I was in favor of a wealth tax and 80 percent tax rates.”</p>
<p>You’re practically a right-winger compared to the French.</p>
<p>Folks, in defense of my free-load in’, hockey-stick-handling-highly-subsidized former compatriots, they DID discover insulin … And they didn’t carge y’all $200 billion for it right out of the gate ;)</p>
<p>However, the lack of pharma innovation in Canada is a known and oft-discussed issue, and is kind of ironic considering that per capita, Canada does produce a disproportionately high volume of medical break-throughs and discoveries. The majority of those breakthroughs are either baseline genetic (eg bone marrow to genome mappingI disease) or treatment process/surgical/device-related (pacemakers, etc.).</p>
<p>What is interesting to think about is whether said innovations are in part a byproduct of a lack of pharma private enterprise…or in part related to the public-funded nature of universities…or in part a quest for efficacy sponsored by government control of healthcare. It des make you wonder.</p>
<p>On the other end of the phama innovation spectrum, the US has mad some remarkable breakthroughs. But the privatized, for-profit structure encourages just as any medical stinkers and invented “syndromes” (eg certain statin drugs, suspect uses/overuse of serotonin uptake inhibitors, etc)) highly skewed research about efficacy, zero public cost control, and a consumerist consciousness of availability due to advertising that is highly manipulated and neither accurately predicts efficacy, contraindications or cost-efficiency from the vantage of public health ;)</p>
<p>For those interested in this phenom, the book “Overdosed Amerca” is an interesting read.</p>
<p>
Community rating’s just another form of subsidization. Not as obvious a one as tax credits for premiums but a subsidy all the same.</p>
<p>I sincerely doubt that Gilead would be selling to Indians @ $1250 if they weren’t able to make it up off a wealthier, more fortunate market. </p>
<p>I’m guessing $1250 is around the production cost. They wouldn’t make anything, wouldn’t lose anything by selling to Indians at production cost. Selling or not selling to Indians doesn’t make any difference to their first world customers.</p>
<p>Not being an accountant privy to their books, I’d be guessing at a cost of production number too, CF. Even knowing it, I’d still wonder if it really covered all possible costs - even future ones like a class action suit on behalf of Indians suffering adverse effects from treatment, for instance. </p>
<p>Pretty unknowable, when you stop and ponder it but that they’re selling based on ability to pay isn’t. And, money being fungible means those who can pay more are. </p>
<p>The ACA writ small in other words, since paying for something you’re not getting is essentially the same thing.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/14/white-house-orders-broader-obamacare-health-plans-in-2015/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/14/white-house-orders-broader-obamacare-health-plans-in-2015/</a></p>
<p>"Health plans selling on the federal marketplaces in 2015 must include 30 percent of area “essential community providers,” which are usually health centers and other hospitals serving mostly low-income patients. That’s up from a 20 percent requirement in 2014, the first year of expanded overage under the health care law.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the marketplaces, will also take a much more active role in reviewing health plan networks. CMS, which outlined the new standards in a Friday night letter to insurers, will evaluate whether the plans include enough access to hospitals, primary care doctors, mental health providers and oncologists.
The updated standards came after a Friday interview in which President Barack Obama acknowledged that pressure to keep down costs could mean consumers may not have access to their choice of doctor.
“You may find out that network is more expensive than another network, then you have to make choices in terms of what’s right for your family,” Obama told WebMD. “Do you want to save on costs, or do you want to save on convenience?”</p>
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<p>BINGO! (Finally some truth in advertising, which confirms what I have been saying on cc since Day 1…)</p>
<p>It is rather amusing how all of the early warnings by critics of this plan are now slowly becoming accepted facts.</p>
<p>Bluebayou, :).</p>
<p>Flossy, “all”? Lol.</p>
<p>Obamacare will not bankrupt the country. Maybe Gild’s drug will. :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://aprildryan.com/2014/03/15/a-presidential-pep-talk-to-the-company-fixing-the-aca-web-site/”>http://aprildryan.com/2014/03/15/a-presidential-pep-talk-to-the-company-fixing-the-aca-web-site/</a></p>
<p>How many days are we going to surge as we approach Mar 31?</p>
<p>Plans, doctors, hospitals, premiums, drugs, jobs, taxes. Yes, Dstark, I think we are fast approaching all and funny enough most of ACA is inexplicably on hold. It is really something. Lol.</p>
<p>You can think what you want but ACA is going to work. ;)</p>