Rant about prescription costs

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Minimum wage jobs should never be a goal for someone's life... Get an education, and work hard: you'll be able to earn MUCH more money.

....
If you plan to work in jobs that won't provide for your needs: prioritize!

Your assertions can easily be the subject of a whole nother discussion. Let's just say my observation of many, many, conscientious and hard working people who are employed in jobs that the American society and economy demand be performed do not support your viewpoint. They also do not adequately support the workers performing them even at wage levels well above minimum wage.

[Easy Rider]

The medical pricing scheme in this country is broken, badly.

Let's see if we can discuss this without becoming all roiled! It's a serious problem for our country. We need a rational solution.

Well the basis for that is an unfettered (unregulated) free enterprise system: Capitalism.

There are several major things that are badly broken in our country .........but the Government (politicians) is too tied up with meddling in things that it shouldn't to take care of the things that it SHOULD.

Attempts were made to start fixing it.
Those changes are now being attacked by those who would have no regulations on business at all.

All hail King Donald.

(Sorry but I couldn't resist giving my real opinion.)

Edit: And I don't hate anybody.

[RinconRyder]

Those changes are now being attacked by those who would have no regulations on business at all.

If you think things were better during the era of no regulations then you do not know your history.

[Easy Rider]

If you think things were better during the era of no regulations then you do not know your history.

You COMPLETELY missed my point; got it backwards in fact.

[UtahPete]

You COMPLETELY missed my point; got it backwards in fact.

That was my first thought. But, in re-reading it, I realized that he could be agreeing with you.

[RinconRyder]

You COMPLETELY missed my point; got it backwards in fact.

Guilty as charged. Read it too fast methinks. My apologies.

[47ModelBrit]

The reference to children's mortality rate is an example of the shortcoming in the healthcare delivery system. The 20% number is a guesstimate of how many people in this country do not have insurance or other ready access to medical care. The lack of care for mothers is a major contributor to the children's mortality rate. It would be interesting to see how children's mortality rate correlates with the parent's access to medical care. If parents have ready access to affordable medical care I dare say their children get better medical care simply due to the fact the parents are accustomed to seeking care when needed. Poor mothers who can't afford to go see the doctor for their own needs are going to be much less likely to take their children to the doctor even if the child is covered by insurance.

There's another possible reason for the high infant mortality rate in the USA. The numbers reported refer only to live births and do not include any stillbirths. It's been suggested that medical personnel here often make heroic efforts to save any newborn and often succeed even if the infant survives just for a few hours; thus infants that may have been recorded as stillborn in other countries will be reported as a live birth here. I have no statistics to back this up but it's an interesting thought.

Regardless, it doesn't change the main point of the thread - the disconnect between medical charges and the amount actually paid.

[Mazo EMS2]

Admittedly I haven't read all the replies...but in my opinion, all of the "Big Pharama" companies have waaay too big of a grip on us. How do they justify the costs of what is formulated and sold? I know we have some awesome science and capabilities in research here in the US, but to hose people for life saving drugs is ridiculous. Two drugs that come to mind are Naloxone, and Epinepherine. Naloxone can be essentially had for free to stop the effects of a drug overdose....which is typically a voluntary act by a drug addict......on the other hand, epi pens which save folks in anaphylaxis, cost an arm and a leg for those who may have allergic reactions to things that might be unknown to them or bee stings etc......It drives me crazy that I have to save some overdose slob multiple times with naloxone, but yet the little kid down the street gets stung by bees while playing with friends, and his parents get socked for the cost of the epi pen that saved him.....grrrrr...

The war on drugs should start with Big Pharma!!! Corporate Greed is all it is!

[pitzerwm]

Having been in private practice ... if your lawyer is charging $340 an hour for work actually done by his/her legal secretary, that is absolutely fraud and you have a legitimate complaint to the local Bar association. You are entitled to an itemized bill showing what the lawyer did to earn the $340 an hour. Not only that, but they would have to produce time slips showing what they did, when they did it, and how long it took them. I'd bet that if you asked for such an accounting, the first response you'd get is an offer to simply cut the bill in half. Thing is, most people are too shy to ask for such an accounting ... and there are some lawyers who know this and depend on it. When I was licensed back in 1982, we had an honorable profession. Now it's 90% ambulance chasers. This kind of thing drove me crazy in short order which is why I spent most of my career in the Army and Air Force, both in uniform as a JAG and as a civilian attorney.

In 1990 I hired a lawyer to write a letter, the bill was $1000, I did ask for an itemized bill. They had sent the letter back and forth to an associate until it added up to $1000. I told him that I dared him to send me another bill, he didn't.

Even though I have finally found an ethical lawyer, I taught myself enough law that I was able to go into Federal court and win. I was also successful in getting the other lawyer disbarred IMO that is a trick. I'm just surprised that more of them aren't blown away.