Tag: high cost of health care

A $1,000 Pill in the United States Costs $4.29 in India

As reported in BusinessWeek magazine (January 11-17, 2016 edition) the treatment for Hepatitis C in the United States by Gilead Science’s Sovaldi costs $1,000 a pill or $84,000 for the entire treatment. However in India the same medication is being manufactured by an Indian company as a generic with another name but is the same medication. The cost is $4.29 per pill.

Some medicines are sold in Canada for one-third (1/3) the price that Americans pay for the identical product. Aciphex and Dexilant are among that group.

Senator Bernie Sanders has spoken repeatedly about our broken health care system that does not provide health care for everyone. Medicare is not permitted to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies but must pay the rates those companies set.

Why hasn’t our congress addressed these issues? The simple answer is that pharmaceutical companies have the lobbyists who influence our representatives and provide the funding for re-election.

No matter who is elected president in November 2016 it is a good bet that this situation will not be changed in any significant way as long as we keep sending the same congress representatives and senators back to Washington.

The High Cost of Extending Your Life

The Associated Press reports today that health care “Premiums averaged $15,745, with employees paying more than $4,300 of that, a glaring reminder that the nation’s problem of unaffordable medical care is anything but solved.”

I just completed reading an article in Newsweek (September 3, 2012) titled “How Much would you pay for three more months of life?”  It’s all  about the high cost of cancer treatments that can cost up to $188K for about six months of additional life. There is nothing in the article about where the money for this treatment will come from.  I do not imagine that most insurance companies will pay these high fees.  After all, the outcome is death not extended life.

Every family needs to discuss the reason for extending life of a pancreatic cancer patient for two weeks at cost of $15K.

Advanced Health Directives help family members decide a course of action.  Of course you have to read and understand the directive before the need arises.  Too many people do not.