Profit-based healthcare is fundamentally, murderously unethical.
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In a libertarian environment, no government agency would be telling other companies they could not produce generic epipens (read the article).
Anyone who wants to give a company a government monopoly to produce a product (beyond patent expiration) and then solve the problem of monopolistic pricing by price controls would probably be in favor of treating cancer by contracting AIDS.
Also in a libertarian environment, there would be no government agency telling any company that they canāt make epipen injectors filled with distilled water (or worse) for sale, market them as epipens, and then skedaddle before the marks grow wise.
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I think in the hypothetical libertarian utopia there is a small government that is voluntarily funded, which has the sole purpose and duty of enforcing contracts. So if you sell a fake epi-pen thatās a violation of the seller/buyer agreement, and a horde of bounty hunters will compete to bring your severed head in for the reward.
I may have this wrong, though, and I donāt know how youād report the fake epi-pen after youād died from anaphylactic shock.
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I once got into a debate* with an Anarcho-Capitalist who was arguing that, in his utopian AnCap society, the for-profit courts would totally end up siding with the penniless striking workers and would award wrongful death settlements to the poor families of the workers killed by the mercenaries hired to break up the strike by the wealthy factory owner. It was really rather interesting from a psychological standpoint on the concept of willful ignorance.
*I feel that Iām committing assault upon the word ādebateā, because it was really him just preaching at us at how democracy was bad, the free market would fix it all, and how you totally could live on a few pennies a day of wages once competition brought prices down, and various other special pleading beyond the above example.
EDIT: Didnāt finish my thought: so needless to say, having thought it through a bit, and seen the utter lack of logic at that end, Iām, shall we say, skeptical about arguments regarding the justice-bringing power of the free market.
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In a libertarian government, the consumer would be king.
In a libertarian government, hospitals would compete to offer the lowest price for knee replacements.
In a libertarian government, insurance companies would compete to offer the best deals on medical care plans.
(Am I playing this game right?)
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From an Australian allergy site. In case anyone wondered what the price was like in Australia.
āYou do NOT NEED A PRESCRIPTION to buy an EpiPen in Australia. They are a so-called S3 item. The pharmacist can dispense the device with instructions. But buying it this way will be expensive, of the order $100 to $150. The Australian Government subsidises EpiPen if if the first prescription is made by a hospital emergency department, or by an allergist, clinical immunologist, respiratory physician or paediatrician. The cost then drops to $4 for health Card or $35 for non-pensioner.ā
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My wife had something like that when we went through IVF.
The USA: Making Australia look like some kind of Utopian paradise for quite a while now!
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Iāve gone through IVF you and your wife have my sympathies.
We have our own issues, just look at our current election.
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ā¦which is particularly depressing when you consider that Australian politics have moved sharply backwards over the last twenty years.
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It sucked but it was a while ago and weāre up to our elbows in children now!
Thatās my point, we have a LOT of problems here, but somehow whenever the U.S. is talking about gun control or healthcare itās like we are living in some fantastical parallel universe.
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I have one. I think that is enough for me. And lord help me sheās about to start walking.
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We had two with IVF, boy and a girl, just like on a TV show. Then she got pregnant again and zaniness ensued, just like on a TV show!!!
The youngest is 4 now though, so theyāre all walking and watching YouTube and saying ānoā when asked to do stuff.
Edit: They sleep more when they start walking 
Edit edit: Apologies all for going wildly off topic!
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Yep, you got kids. My is 17 months, but she born over 2 months early and that start puts her development slightly behind. Sheās catching up though.
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And yeah, we have gone a little off topic. Iām hoping there wasnāt much more to be said about the wildly inflated price of epipens
Wow thatās early but Iām glad you are all well. Sounds like a long road to get there, nice to have it behind you.
Seems like it would be easier to bring them down from Canada, where they can be bought without a prescription for $100, and they will sell to non-Canadians who walk in off the street.
[quote=āXantheStone, post:69, topic:81042, full:trueā]
From an Australian allergy site. In case anyone wondered what the price was like in Australia.
āYou do NOT NEED A PRESCRIPTION to buy an EpiPen in Australia. They are a so-called S3 item. The pharmacist can dispense the device with instructions. But buying it this way will be expensive, of the order $100 to $150. The Australian Government subsidises EpiPen if if the first prescription is made by a hospital emergency department, or by an allergist, clinical immunologist, respiratory physician or paediatrician. The cost then drops to $4 for health Card or $35 for non-pensioner.ā[/quote]
So pretty much the same as Canada ā Canadians get subsidized/discounted pricing, but anybody can buy one.
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Pre eclampsia can be a bitch, let me tell you that. But sheās fine. Just a little behind in major milestones, nothing too major and by the time sheās 2 thereāll be no real difference. I met many kids in the NICU that have chronic lung disease and have had one or more major heart surgeries before their 1st birthdays. We were lucky.
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