Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/27/why-the-price-of-insulin-has-s.html
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Greed.
(other characters)
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No, it comes down to “They’ll pay whatever we charge, because if they don’t they’ll die.” And lack of competition. Even without competition, the idea of gouging folks who depend on your product to stay alive is unforgivable.
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It’s possible to buy insulin from Canada without a prescription at a fraction of the cost. However, it’s considered illegal to import insulin to the United States and you may have it confiscated by border officials on the trip home, and you may even face prosecution.
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Unchecked greed.
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Lemme guess - an insufficient supply of guillotines?
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Do you get free insulin in jail?
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On the U.S. side, you might die in jail waiting for medication.
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Then you get gouged twice, once by pharma and again by the marked up price the private prison system charges for it.
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Type 1 here. I actually got to the point of looking for flights to Canada and Mexico recently due to trouble getting my insulin script renewed. I’ll be damned if I’ll pay a 10,000% markup.
I feel sorry for diabetics who don’t understand that this is an America-only problem and go through some combination of going broke, losing toes and dying.
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That’s really it. Regulation and taxes are the peaceful alternative to dragging the rich out of their houses and killing them in front of their families.
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Given that there are lots of international people on this site, headlines with this need to say “In America”.
The price of insulin has not skyrocketed in the civilized world.
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Free market, my ass.
I really do hope this racket end as soon as the US have a new president.
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Gee, it’s almost like letting the “free market” dictate drug prices is a bad thing, but that can’t be right? The free market is best for all the things! /s
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All of it boil down to legal protections…
– The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers
Henry VI, Part 2 , Act IV, Scene 2
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I would upvote this 138 times if I could.
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If congress were to have the authority to cancel patents in the cases of price gouging and actually do so, we might be able to get some control over pricing. It should also be completely simple and legal to import prescriptions to the extent that Walgreens and other pharmacies would have similar and lower priced products on their shelves.
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