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$900.00 For a 30 day supply of pills!

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This guy is a total D bag that gives us entrepreneurs a bad name. There is something about his smirky little face that wants to make me rub it in the mud. The good news is he now has competition manufacturing that same pill. The other company is charging only $1.00 for it.
I hope they run his A$$ out of business.
Martin Shkreli's Daraprim Now Has $1 Competition
 
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Not on the same level as the $750 a pill guy but one of my cats has intestinal lymphoma and was prescribed Leukeran which is an old drug that's been around since the 60's. When kitty was diagnosed it was about $1 a pill. The brand was bought up and pill price jumped to $6 a pill. We went to a compound pharmacy and purchased Chlorambucil for 75 cents a pill.
 
I went to register my in-laws on the ACA site. They make $16,000 on Social Security which is below the poverty level, when I plugged all their info into the Website, the cheapest rate they could get with subsidies for Health Insurance is $18,000 a year, $2,000 more than they make.
 
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I went to register my in-laws on the ACA site. They make $16,000 on Social Security which is below the poverty level, when I plugged all their info into the Website, the cheapest rate they could get with subsidies for Health Insurance is $18,000 a year, $2,000 more than they make.

The minute the Government called it The Affordable Care Act, just *** were you expecting??

:eek:
 
I went to register my in-laws on the ACA site. They make $16,000 on Social Security which is below the poverty level, when I plugged all their info into the Website, the cheapest rate they could get with subsidies for Health Insurance is $18,000 a year, $2,000 more than they make.
That's sad. My wife and I are currently paying around $17,000 a year for a private PPO plan which probably has much more benefits than the plan you were quoted.
 
My father was in the test program for what became Harvoni (he incurred no costs and was compensated as well). I remember during the course of the medication he mentioned that his doctor thought it was absurd this program would cost nearly $100,000 to be cured of Hep C. However- my father was cured within 12 weeks. When he started the program he had over 200,000 units of the Hep C virus per liter of blood. After one week of treatment that was down to 20,000 units. The next week there was no trace of Hep C in his system. We added how many years to his life? Will that be worth $100,000 to someone?

I agree the cost is absurd. But how much is life worth (in dollars) anyway? Just a honest question....

PROVENGE is the drug touted by Dendreon to add 6 months to prostate cancer patients who are on their death beds. price of admission,... ~$100,000.00 per month!!!
the company has restructured and is presently charging a more reasonable figure. i read earlier today that Medicare & others have picked up coverage. they also have Co Pay Assistance Programs that will pay up to $6000.00 per every three treatments, so their drug is still very expensive. some survivors are on their third year of survival. i hope it's an enjoyable survivable and not just rich people keeping corpses breathing! YIKES!!! :nailbiting:
 
The U.S. is the largest consumer of prescription medication and pharma companies spend more money on advertising than research. A lot of medications are being researched at public universities, if the government wanted they could put a cap on prices charged.
 
I went to register my in-laws on the ACA site. They make $16,000 on Social Security which is below the poverty level, when I plugged all their info into the Website, the cheapest rate they could get with subsidies for Health Insurance is $18,000 a year, $2,000 more than they make.
Then you entered something incorrectly. I've been on the site and run numbers for various income scenarios and coverages. They may not wind up paying a dime.
 
I went to register my in-laws on the ACA site. They make $16,000 on Social Security which is below the poverty level, when I plugged all their info into the Website, the cheapest rate they could get with subsidies for Health Insurance is $18,000 a year, $2,000 more than they make.
I just went to my WA state sponsored care site. If you're currently below the poverty level like I am, coverage was in the $55-65 per month range. Of course at 47, I'm a little younger than they are.

As an aside, one great thing about these new health care rules is that these nickel & dime insurance companies cannot deny you (or charge you any more to my knowledge) if you have a pre existing condition, which is a wonderful thing to many many people.
 
I went to register my in-laws on the ACA site. They make $16,000 on Social Security which is below the poverty level, when I plugged all their info into the Website, the cheapest rate they could get with subsidies for Health Insurance is $18,000 a year, $2,000 more than they make.
If they are getting Social Security.....................they should be eligible for Medicare, or soon will be if it's a medical disability. Somethings not right here !!
 
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"“Let’s not fold to advocacy pressure in 2014,” Gilead executive Kevin Young wrote in an email cited in the report."

I was going to mention this; especially since one of the characters involved in this massive rip-off is a VA doctor, who apparently sees nothing wrong with charging the Veterans he was hired to treat, $84,000 for the treatment series of pills that cost his company $1400 to produce...
But, this isn't exactly new. Remember Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on tv? Way back then, they did a skit about someone trying to fill a prescription, begging and pleading the Pharmacist down from some ridiculous (for the time) amount, to 50 cents. "Oh, well," the pharmacist said, after the patient left; "I still made a quarter". The screams of protest, and the sanctimonious rebuttals, from the drug companies was something to behold...:)
 
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Swung by the pharmacy "to get my prescription filled..." They told me my insurance wouldn't pay for this particular med. I asked "why?" They said because of the cost. I asked how much? (thinking I'd just pay for it myself.) I almost passed out when she told me. I can't always get what I want!
That's not bad. My story is worse. I went to a dermatologist last year, and he prescribed me a tube of skin cream for my face. The pharmacy wanted $700 for the little tube of cream! I called the doctor's office and had the doctor prescribe me something else, which only cost about $11.
 
Pharmaceutical companies spend way more in advertising than they do on research and development (just one of a plethora of articles about it Link Removed). Why should they need to advertise to the general public, at all? In many countries that's illegal. Not here. Their r&d also isn't going towards medications to help cure anything. Only to treat illnesses. On top of that they are fully aware that the treatments they're prescribing quite often lead to even worse health problems down the line. And they blatantly lie, regarding much of that info. If caught lying, they pay a fine, which is just considered a marketing expense.

What gets me almost as much as the above, are the educated and articulate lay people who defend the drug companies... haven't been following this thread closely, but there are 1 or 2 here. They're the ones who help allow this evil to continue, because they offer a defense. Nothing wrong with making money ya know. I don't agree with that. Hit men make a lot of money. If I mug or rob a sick and defenseless person, I can make a lot of money too.

I think people need to REALLY educate themselves before defending certain things, and people should start doing whatever they can to help create positive change in the areas that it's clearly needed. I am.
 
That's not bad. My story is worse. I went to a dermatologist last year, and he prescribed me a tube of skin cream for my face. The pharmacy wanted $700 for the little tube of cream! I called the doctor's office and had the doctor prescribe me something else, which only cost about $11.

Well, that was kind of my original point. There are often other more viable and equally effective options.
I had to have a simple extraction of a loose tooth my dentist couldn't do because of arthritis in his hands. He referred me to an oral surgeon who kindly offered to do it for $350.

I told him he was out of his mind and went to a different dentist in the same building who did it for $99.

I know the old saw about their office expenses and I get all that I was self employed. However 1 lidocaine shot and 30 seconds of manual labor and discarding and cleaning up when you have 3 or 4 people in chairs you are working on in rotation, I was happy to pay $99 but don't insult my intelligence and try to rob me like the other guy. I have gladly paid much more out of my pocket for much more involved procedures.

Waaay too many sheeple out there. Especially if "my insurance will cover it". That's a big part of the reason insurance is through the roof. Greed and overuse.