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Not coming from the USA I don't know if it's true. Do people die because they can't afford drugs?
In the Uk we have the NHS, while not perfect, almost everything is virtually free.
I have type 2 diabetes, high bp, high cholesterol and asthma.I appear reasonably healthy though. I take 8 pills in the morning and 4 at night. My prescription drugs are in a carrier bag when I pick them up from the pharmacy.
I can't imagine how I would pay for them if I lived in the USA. I have private medical care via my job, but it doesn't cover for pre-existing conditions. With my problems that will only means broken bones and hernia's etc.
Comments
It gets worse
One YouTuber that I sometimes listen to had a non-malignant skin lesion removed. That after his insurance cover cost him several thousand dollars. He was even billed for the 'facility'.
I had a small cancer on my bottom lip removed just before Covid hit. I went privately because my GP surgery was short of two doctors so getting an appointment was difficult. As I said, I went privately and for £500, I had the operation on the spot, the growth was sent for a biopsy and had a follow up appointment. No further costs. The cancer was not malignant.
Yes, I could have had it done on the NHS but given that Covid was starting to appear, I wanted it removed sooner rather than later.
Even going private here is an awful lot cheaper than in the USA.
I know that the NHS saved my life when within a week of seeing my GP, I'd been diagnosed with Leukaemia and was on Chemo. I also spent two weeks in ICU because I had no immune system. No cost to me whatsoever.
In every study done, the USA ranks bottom of all the developed nations when it comes to healthcare and its affordability. Yet for so many, even Medicare is many steps down the path to communism.
Samantha
It's Complicated
The structure of the United States is based on pure genius. Our founding fathers were AMAZING. However, our founding fathers were humans and kicked the can down the road on troublesome things -- so that perfection didn't get in the way of good. If you happened to be black or female . . . well -- all that talk about being "created equal" didn't quite pertain to you.
Further, our founding fathers warned us about the evils of political parties. . .some even wanted them banned -- but they left us with a system that was perfect for political parties to exploit for fun and profit. (Insert here how much money politicians receive in the form of campaign contributions from Bible lovers by simply bashing a few transpersons with laws that are clearly unconstitutional and definitely Not Christian -- WWJ not D. Campaign contributions are money, which seeps into the politicians' pockets.)
Healthcare is also one of those things that involves a great deal of money . . . so the exploitation just keeps rolling along.
I'm on Medicare. It's great -- and very socialist. "Socialism" is a four-letter word in many parts of the U.S.
I buy Medicare supplement insurance which fills in some of the gaps.
Medicine can be a problem. Even with Medicare and Medicare Supplement, I pay about $1,000 a year out-of-pocket for medicine. I can afford that but many can't. For some -- who need esoteric medicines, the problem is more accute.
Medicare is not a panacea. ANYTHING touched by the government is deep in corruption and waste. When I walk into a clinic and flash my Medicare card, my doctor's eyes flash and they start to recommend tests and procedures that I'm sure are very profitable for them and their employers. Medicare and its immense unnecessary costs are covered by taxpayers. This year, I sent Uncle Sam about $400k. I hate to think how much is due to frivolous spending under Medicare.
Private insurers (who we hate because they want to make "profits" - another four-letter word in most of the U.S.) tend to keep a lid on unnecessary spending through pernicious doling out of benefits under their policies.
So you see -- we hate Socialism and we hate Capitalism. So -- if a few people have to die to fuel our hate, so be it. . .because that is what freedom is all about.
By the way -- our system works well enough to have created Mayo Clinic, which from the amount of international traffic into Rochester, MN seems to be one of the best in the world. If you can afford it. My brother, who has no wealth, is in Mayo for treatment - completely covered by Medicare. They've saved his life many times.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Yep!
There's a ton of reasons I won't go on about but it is true. Aside from Medicare/Medicaid it's all for-profit and return based. The only insurance I can afford will cover my medications but have the right to deny covering them if they are off-label purposes. (used for reasons other than considered "acceptable". For example, I can have spironolactone because it can be used for lowering blood pressure. But any other antui-androgen? No.) I have two meniscal tears that need surgery, back issues from an accident, etc. that will only be covered (50%) after I pay over $8.000 out of pocket. That makes it impossible. I have to fight every 90 days for non-narcotic pain-killers. Not Opioids, Not addictive. Those are just some of MY issues. People in need of insulin who don't have insurance can't afford it because it is often more than their rent,
It's all because your
It's all because your government allows companies to make huge profits. This doesn't surprise me. 10 times more in the USA than Italy.
Top 10 Countries Where Insulin is Most Expensive (2018 RAND Corporation):
United States — $98.70
Chile — $21.48
Mexico — $16.48
Japan — $14.40
Switzerland — $12.46
Canada — $12.00
Germany — $11.00
Korea — $10.30
Luxembourg — $10.15
Italy — $10.03
Leeanna
Insulin Is Expensive When You Use the Drive-Thru
Insulin is expensive in the U.S. because you can only buy it at Dairy Queen. The last time the U.S. had a cash flow problem, Warren Buffett bailed us out and cut a deal for the exclusive rights to sell insulin as a Cool Treat in his fast-food gold mines. Just to prove that capitalism is the most benevolent system ever, Warren still lives in the same Omaha house he bought in 1958 for $31,000. Of course, he dismantled the house years ago and moved it brick by brick to Beverly Park Circle in California.
Please quit knocking the good ol' US of A. I was born a poor white boy. In retropsect, I won the lottery. Even though my parents were dirt poor and I grew up in a home without running water or indoor plumbing. I was born white in a country that loves its bigotry. That gave me a leg up on about a third of the population . .now about half. Because I grew up on a farm I thought working sixty to eighty hours a week was normal. My IQ tested low genius. Unfortunately, my parents saddled me with a set of morals. I have lost a lot of money to sleazy competitors and outright scoundrels. Had Mom and Dad simply taught me how to lie I would have done extremely well. My parents were big on education, both being teachers. By watching them I knew that teaching was not for me. . .but I realized the socialization that is afforded by a proper college education. I stood to pee. that gave me a 35-40% wage advantage over those who sit. Because of the rampant misogyny I was abe to partner with several females, whose talents were far beyond their ability to grasp due to the brainwashing they went through as girls. During my business career, which just concluded, I created three businesses that I sold for (each) seven-figure sums. Our government allowed me to keep some of that money. I lost quite a lot of it betting that Google wasn't totally dishonest. Bad bet!
But in the end I always bought the very best health care insurance for my employees along with top-shelf Long-Term care insurance. So I've never suffered for access to our system and in all likelihood, never will.
Had I been born a middle class, black girl in an urban setting I would have had mountains to overcome but I'm sure you all realize I would have gladly traded a lot of advantage for a XX chromosome.
Being trans in the U.S. was no problem for me unless you think living a seventy-four-year lie with all the guilt and trauma is something negative.
The U.S. isn't the hell hole you paint it to be. We've been shooting ourselves in the foot for quite some time and can't quite shake the Trump nightmare, but we will. I look around -- and outside of New Zealand I don't see a realistic alternative.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
All I'm knocking Angela, is
All I'm knocking Angela, is the way it looks after it's poorest citizen's health. As you said you did well coming from a poor background. Not everyone does well in any society. I saw a youtube video when Americans were asked about an NHS type system. The poorer one's like the idea, the ones with good cover said "why should I pay for someone else?"
The UK has many problems, and can be a crap place to live. I'm just grateful that after the last war the healthcare question was taken away, well that and not being allowed guns, but that's a whole other conversation.
Leeanna
it varies from state to state
it varies from state to state.
Maine has Maine care which is a compressive health care system not unlike the NHS. I am not sure about the other states.
So most government health care is provided at a state level, not a federal level. This is the same in the EU where there is no EU wide health care. An example I saw an illegal immigrant who need a leg amputated the hospital did it for free as it was life-saving. But gave him a church instead of a prosthetic leg and it was not life-saving.
As far as I know, hospitals can't turn away patients needing saving treatment. Most hospitals have indignant wards for patients who can't pay.
In some hospitals, 1/3 of the patients cannot and do not pay. This means the cost of the care is passed on to the poor patients who face higher bills.
The military has an extensive VA hospital care system for members of the military and family members and vetrans.
Many companies give health care as part of the contract of employment.
Drug prices are a lot higher than drug prices in other countries for private prescriptions. Many other countries have price control on the price drugs can be sold for America does not have this. Some Americans have flowed as far as Spain to buy cheaper 3 month supply of the some drugs at a much cheaper price.
Even ObamaCare was heavily influenced by drug lobbyists who limit the use of genetic drugs.
There are states that mandate that control what medical insurance must cover even if the customer does not want the cover and this increases the price of insurance. Purchasing medical insurance across state lines as far as I know is not allowed.
the big difference between the NHS and the American hospital system is the American hospital can send you a massive bill and medical insurance has an upper limit as to how much it will cover. The leading cause of bankruptcy in America is medical bills.
On the other hand the NHS has NICE and they decide if medical treatment is worth the money so can refuse medical treatment if they think it is too expensive.
The NHS is famous for its long waiting list for medical treatment. American hospitals tend to run every test they can and offer ore treatment party because they are afraid of being sued and how a judge a jury will view the health care provided.
Also until the 1990s the NHS never had paid a malpractice case as the first case on the subject said the people owned the NHS so cannot sure themselves. I knew the people who were the first to sue the NHS and get compensation for malpractice. Their child was damaged by lack of oxygen at birth and needed 24 by 7 care.
The nasty and expensive part of American health care is the overuse of helicopters for medical transport and these can be almost as expensive as a hospital stay.
On the other hand, American hospitals have more advanced treatment than the NHS ones and often people in Europe and elsewhere go to America for treatment they cannot get at home.
In the UK not everyone gets free hospital care foreigners can be charged for hospital care.
Irish are excluded for charges due to an agreement with the Irish government and EU citizens had to fill in a form in the home countries to cover them in the UK
The NHS wanted to send me a bill when treatment in Swansea in the 1980s for a broken leg until they found out I was Irish and they could not change me.
https://mewswithaview.wordpress.com/
Pretty spot on
This is pretty close to completely correct. In the US, a patient cannot be denied emergency medical care for a lack of ability to pay. The costs get pushed onto everyone else at that hospital. Unfortunately, that results in people going to the ER for a hangnail... and then never paying the bill. It gets turned over to collections... who unless the expense is very high, often make a few attempt to collect and then write it off as a loss. It dings the person's credit report, but that's about it.
In Nevada there is no universal coverage... though a parent can sign their children up for CHIP... the Children's Health Insurance Program... if they meet certain low-income standards. We also have a law that says that a person without insurance has to receive a 30% discount MINIMUM off of any medical procedure. That alone takes a big bite out of the medical insurance racket. Prescription drugs can be gotten at a discount many times off the retail price by joining any number of medical savings 'clubs' that buy medications in bulk, then distribute them at lower prices to their members. Sam's Club and Costco, two national 'big box' stores here, both have such memberships that can be a big savings.
The use of medical transport helicopters is almost a necessity in many places in the US. People outside the US have no frame of reference to the idea of just how much distance there can be between where an accident occurs and the nearest hospital. When my son was nearly killed in an auto accident in 2015, we were almost 15 miles (24 km) from the nearest hospital... which wasn't equipped to deal with his injuries... (two broken arms, cervical spine damage, and crushed lungs) and the nearest one that was equipped was 160 miles away (257 km or over 3 hours by ambulance) and in another State. He was flown there in only an hour and as a result made a full recovery.
It was worth every penny. As a result my son is alive and suffers no ill effects. Those 2 hours saved getting him to medical help faster made the difference between a full recovery and a lifetime of pain and complications.
Just the other side of the coin,
Roberta
I know when the UK was in the
I know when the UK was in the EU there was reciprocal agreement. Not sure what happens now. Not sure what would happen if you visit from the republic of Ireland.
There are waiting lists on the NHS, but not usually for life saving stuff. It's on the urgency , not ability to pay.
I'm still a lot happier with it than the U.S. alternative from what I have been reading here.
Leeanna
i think
the short answer is yes. Many '3rd world' countries have better systems. It doesn't just stop at healthcare, more law enforcement and 'security' agencies than you can shake a stick at, heck there's hardly any co operation between any of them, they are all protecting their 'little' bit of 'democracy', sod the expense.
And there is clearly no political will to do anything about it, some have tried but their efforts are blocked at every turn.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Doesn't make sense. One of
Doesn't make sense. One of the most advanced countries in the world, yet they treat their people like crap. It seems it's run by the wealthy for the wealthy to stay wealthy. If you are not wealthy you can work to pay, and when you can't pay, well you aren't much use.
Leeanna
100% yes. Am American and it
100% yes. Am American and it's horrible. I could go on and on but essentially the corporations have completely taken over American health care.
Some do
I have no statistics to back any of this up, but I know that anyone living on an income anywhere near the poverty line or below and aren't covered by employer provided insurance struggle if they have health issues. I broke my knee in 1992. I was covered by insurance that my employer provided however, the recovery took six months. Since I couldn't work, I lost coverage after 60 days and any hope of going back to work for that company after 90 days. To get the followup care I needed I had to "Cobra" (pay for extended insurance) Insurance companies have to allow people in that situation to temporarily extend their coverage. I had to pay about $200 a month for that and it covered only me, whereas when I was working, it covered my family. That meant while I could get the followup care I needed, my wife - whose health it not nearly as good as mine, was out in the cold for doctor visits and medication.
That meant for the period of time after I broke my knee and I went back to work, she was completely without medical treatment. She has high blood pressure and when her prescription ran out, she couldn't renew it. To complicate matters, my new employer was California based and the insurance that they offered made it too expensive for me to meet my financial obligations (rent, food, gas, and groceries) and pay my share of the medical insurance. So my wife went over a year without her blood pressure medicine. As a result, she developed congestive heart failure. My daughter found a county clinic that would see her as an emergency. They got her blood pressure down and hooked her up with a sliding scale clinic that would see her and keep her prescriptions current and fill them at a discounted rate. With that taken care of we could manage. I was still without insurance and when I came down with shingles and got a secondary infection in my eye I had to go to that same county clinic to get a prescription for an ointment to cure that infection.
We limped along like that until my employer got enough employees in Oregon to enroll us on an Oregon plan and I could afford my share.
When I retired, I looked ahead and determined just what I'd need to do to avoid my wife relapsing with congestive heart failure. We were lucky that she was able to recover, but with three new medication to combat it and I was sure that if we didn't maintain coverage she'd be SOL and probably die. We have an "Advantage +" plan with the same provider we had when I was working. Advantage + is what they call Medicare supplemental coverage it included Medicare Part D (Prescription coverage) The premium comes out of our Social Security check before I see it. It leaves us with about a $32K per year income. That translates to just over $2,500 per month.
Know that, I delayed my retirement for two years after I began drawing Social Security and use that money to put together a down payment on a small house in a small community that had had two recent floods and the property values were down. We managed to get a three bedroom, two bath manufactured home on private property for $140K. That put our house payment slightly less then what we were paying for rent. Without stabilizing our housing costs we wouldn't be able to maintain even a semblance of our former standard of living. So we count ourselves among the fortunate. Anyone who hadn't been as through in planning (and I don't consider myself as having done that well -- that is I've set us up to squeak by) is in deep do-do.
My Brother who did plan his retirement better than I did, didn't look ahead when he retired and is dependent on medicare for his coverage. At the time he retired he was in good health and taking no medication, so he didn't do the Advantage + and doesn't have prescription coverage.
Here's the kicker. If you don't get it when you start with Medicare Part B (which you have to pay for) the insurance companies can and do increase your premium as a penalty for not buying it when you didn't need it. So after several years when old age caught up with my brother it's more expensive to get prescription coverage than it is to pay the whole thing out of pocket. He's fortunate to be able to afford that.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Sorry the here about your
Sorry the here about your problems and your wife's. Someone told me a joke about "Breaking Bad" I've been diagnosed with cancer . how can I pay for treatment. Oh wait I live in the UK it's all free. The series wouldn't have happened.
I get BUPA health insurance, but I have never used it. many companies offer it as a perk. It can be good for getting things like hip replacements and non life threatening stuff done quicker.
I live about 20 miles north of London, a 3 bed house here is around £500,000 ($650k) I live in an end of terrace 2 bed which is valued at £400k. Crazy house prices here.
Until recently though the government could make you sell your house if you went into a care home to pay the costs. There are way around this now.
Leeanna
medical bills.
back in 2005 I was charged $45 for 10 min with a reusable gel ice pack. This past November I had surgery. I was in the hospital for 3 days. My insurance covered it but my insurance was billed over $100,000 for the surgery and hospital room. I have type 2 diabetes. I take weekly shots of Ozempic for it. recently my insurance pitched a fit and did not cover it for a month. I had to go without my shots. Without insurance, my shots cost $1,000 a month. Even my daily inhaler would cost me several hundred a month without insurance.
Jessica Marie
That's crazy prices. I just
That's crazy prices. I just googled it . You can get it free on the NHS or privately and pay
1 pen (0.25mg starting dose) £134.99
1 pen (0.5mg) £139.99
1 pen (1mg) £149.9
The cost of Ozempic®is £2.62 per day†, so can be prescribed at no additional cost compared to other once-weekly GLP-1 RAs available.
I take some thing similar, I inject every evening.Mine is called Lyxumia.
Leeanna
A Few Years Back
Well at least six or seven I think, it might have been more. The BBC Newsnight program here in the UK did an item on a hospital Doctor who volunteered two evenings a week seeing people for free at a Volunteer clinic in that city. If someone needed medication, he would go to a cupboard and see what medicines had been donated that week. The person seeing the Doctor in the package was a woman in I guess her mid forties with a heart condition. She was an office manager. She earned a decent wage, but her employer did not provide any medical cover. The cost of her heart medicine was more than earned in a month regardless of paying for rent, food etc. She told the Newsnight reporter that some months she had medication and some she did not, depending what was in the clinic's cupboard.
Someone told me once that
Someone told me once that medication cost so much in the USA, because they have to pay the development costs.
Ventolin an asthma inhaler or Albuterol is a widely used bronchodilator. It is one of a series of compounds that were patented in 1972 by L. H. C. Lunts and co-inventors and assigned to Allen and Hanburys, a British pharmaceutical, this was in 1972.
It cost the NHS £1.50
How much is Ventolin in USA?
Albuterol is available in pharmacies for as little as $30, while its brand-name versions (Ventolin and Proventil) cost about $74 per inhaler. GoodRx prices for the authorized generic of ProAir HFA are as low as $25, compared to $61 for the brand version
Even the best price is 20 times what the NHS pay. The drug is 50 years old , so development cost are long since paid for, British drug anyway.
The average cost of a brand-name asthma inhaler without insurance is $292.91. That is insane!!!
Leeanna
Drug pricing in USA….
The primary reason our drug prices are high is the price of congress people. If big (and little) pharma want to stay in control (and make people rich) they have to buy enough state and federal congress people to get the laws (and keep them) in their favor. And folks congress people are not cheep.
BAK 0.25tspgirl
Its
A corrupt and Undemocratic country - hang on a minute, isn’t that what we keep saying about Russia?
Madeline Anafrid Bell
The USA is not a Democracy
or that is what a lot of people say. I'd say that it is a Democratic Republic but that just gets a different set of crazies angry.
With all the moves to make voting harder and harder, the 'democratic' part could soon become a thing of the past.
But what do I know eh? I'm not even an American...
Samantha
Insulin
Is only one of the drugs which are expensive in the USA.
However, it is a prime example of profit-gouging.
Insulin had a protracted period of development from around 1870 until its approved medical application in 1922.....YES....1922! so any development costs have been well and truly recovered by now, 100 years after its first use in treating diabetes.
As another commentor has outlined its cost to the consumer in several countries I add Australia to the list, where its cost at the local pharmacy is US$6.94 (exchange rate varying a little).
I think that says it all about the American health system. You can buy it here for one fifteenth of the price in the USA.
I remeber reading about an
I remeber reading about an inscription on a grave stone
If life was a thing that money could buy.
The rich would live and the poor would die.
That is true about a lot of places to soem extent.
I think it is so awful that the people of the USA have to put up with it.
Divide and conquer rules, like it does in the UK about immigrants"look everyone , that's the reason your tax is so high, lets send them to Rwanda.
With the USA." Look everybody why should you have to pay pay for lazy people's health insurance, they should get a job. Social care is like communism, you're not a commie are you?" The stuff about immigrants is probably true there too.
Leeanna
I could go on and on. I am
I could go on and on. I am disabled and on medicare and take 14 meds between diabetes type 2, asthma, bipolar disorder, vitamins, and 2 meds are for side effects of others. Some of my medications cost thousands of dollars, insurance brings those down to the 20 to 150 dollar range. With prescription assistance my meds come to around $70 a month. If i didn't have that I would be SOL for some meds.
The limit for medicaid in NJ is $900, i was originally awarded $972 when I started disability and I asked my lawyer if I could give the govt the $72 back each month. There are times I have avoided doctors because I know the bills will be ridiculous.