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I just saw an interview with this guy on youtube and the word "hubris" came to mind, just sitting there with a frozen smug look on his face. When the reporter asked him if he would consider changing the price to make it easier for people to get access to the drug, he answered without hesitation "NO". He probably thinks he's a major player in the biotech world now, but I have a feeling he's just a blip on the screen. People like him do not last long - you know what they say about hubris and falls... He hasn't invented anything or created anything to move society forward. He bought the rights to a drug and raised the price from $13.50 to $750.00 a pill, which will probably leave a lot of people who need the drug no access to it now, maybe people will die, too. This kind of man makes society move backwards.
I wonder about the price hospitals would charge for an $750 pill? Last time I've paid through my nose for the gross incompetence and lack of common sense of the ER personnel, I've paid $99 for 3 pills. That is roughly 100 fold mark up in my case. Hedge fund manager did nothing that hospital racket doesnt do on regular basis. Obscene mark ups is bread and butter of the medical biz.
And if you have no insurance crooks behind your back negotiating insane mark ups with the med biz racket, good freaking luck.
Last edited by RememberMee; 09-22-2015 at 12:41 AM..
I wonder what price hospitals would charge for an $750 pill? Last time I've paid through my nose for the gross incompetence and lack of common sense of the ER personnel, I've paid $99 for 3 pills. That is roughly 100 fold mark up in my case. Hedge fund manager did nothing that hospital racket doesnt do on regular basis. Obscene mark ups is bread and butter of medical biz.
I heard that hospitals charge a LOT for even a aspirin and somebody said that people with insurance will pay more so that people without insurance will be covered for hospital services. I don't know if that is true though, but what this hedge fund guy is doing is perverse - it's not capitalism. Capitalism is setting a price that the market will bear to pay, but this is beyond capitalism, it's plain...how should I say it? Morally wrong. Whatever profits he reaps will be blood money because people are going to die.
I heard that hospitals charge a LOT for even a aspirin and somebody said that people with insurance will pay more so that people without insurance will be covered for hospital services. I don't know if that is true though, but what this hedge fund guy is doing is perverse - it's not capitalism. Capitalism is setting a price that the market will bear to pay, but this is beyond capitalism, it's plain...how should I say it? Morally wrong. Whatever profits he reaps will be blood money because people are going to die.
Fundamentally, it is the same. Hospitals would bancrupt you to get their mark ups. Market cannot bear current medical costs, period. There is no way. Government propelled pyramid scheme and subsidies allow robbing of relatively young and healthy (including unborn) to maintain insane prices and profits. It is just too bad that the pyramid would crumble unable to provide for the today' healthy people future needs.
If every economic system since the dawn of mankind was socialism:
Aspirin would have never been invented.
People would still be riding horses as opposed to driving cars.
And, forums like this would not exist since the intelligence and technology to have an internet would have never existed with socialism.
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Increases in the standard of living of mankind is directly linked to how much economic (and political) freedom exists to allow inventions, creations and life changing prescription drugs.
Capitalism is responsible for the existence of the drug mentioned by the OP, and capitalism is responsible for the increase in cost.
Too many socialists want to have their cake and eat it too. And while doing it off the back of capitalism.
The problem with socialism is sooner or later you run out of other people's money....
When taking any kind of legal, economic, enterprise, or political, action in this country, people always need to take into account that we have neither pure capitalism nor pure socialism. What we actually have, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, is a government of the lawyers, by the lawyers, for the lawyers.
Some lawyers might find ways to get rich from this case, even if it means making things even worse for AIDS victims. Frivolous litigation can harass people enough to drive them into bankruptcy. Lawyers on either side can get rich from this kind of case. Whose side would a jury rule on? How deep are the hedge fund guy's pockets? The overall result might be a delay of years in bringing generic drugs to market, as the generic drug companies wait for the results of such litigation before deciding whether to get involved.
I'm reminded of the movie (a long time ago) about Ryan White, the little boy with hemophilia who got AIDS from tainted blood. The expression on his face when the lawyers were arguing that he didn't have long to live. Maybe he's lucky he's not alive to witness the upcoming litigation and politics, which is likely to be so full of sleaze as to make a lot of people realize what we have now is far worse than the worst of capitalism combined with the worst of socialism.
We are rated way down the totem pole in many categories, the only things we are rated number one is in highest defense spending and the highest incarceration rate in the world.
How does our defense spending and incarceration compare to those of North Korea? Or do they economize on incarceration by simply executing most of them instead? And maybe draft most of the population into the military, but not pay them much, to keep their military costs down?
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I usually agree with capitalism in most industries. However where is some ones moral responsibility in a case like this? Personally I couldn't live with myself doing that to some one.
Is it better that nobody can get the drug due to supply issues?
How does price gouging help supply issues?
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