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1. Drug companies can charge whatever price they want
2. Insurance companies are also charging you more
3. Old drugs are reformulated as costly new drugs
4. Generic drug shortages can trigger massive price increases
5. Specialty drugs are costing all of us
BINGO
When I read your list, I thought of Martin Shkreli
The former hedge funder with no medicine background that jumped on the pharma cash machine
He fullfilled all your points and we need to go after cockroaches like that
He showed how wide spread this is with his actions
While that may be true - and I think some people overplay the significance of this act because many Americans go to other countries for medicines and treatments too - other countries do have a base level of coverage for people so they don't go broke receiving medical care.
Additionally, the role of wait times in our country vs. other countries are a bit mendacious as well since I, and many other Americans, already wait months and months to see specialists anyway.
The wealthy ones like Saudi Kings that come to the US would maybe only account for .0001% that come to this country. Your average Canadian or European are not going to be able to afford the prices here
Americans that go abroad for healthcare number in the millions
Remember, lobbyists do not have the power to pass legislations. There is not problem with lobbyists, the problem lies in your choice of a legislative representative.
How do you propose the majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck outspend deep pocket Corporations that publicize their chosen in the media?
Most politicians come from Corporations and the Corporations are the biggest funders for them
And when the politicians are done, they have a nice cushy office job waiting for them
Having the provinces run it is less offensive than having the federal government run it.
Wait times are longer in Canada.
A survey by the Fraser Institute found a median wait of 20 weeks for “medically necessary†treatments and procedures in 2016 – the longest-recorded wait time since the think tank began tracking wait times.
That’s more than double the wait times reported in 1993, when the right-leaning think tank began tracking the issue in Canada. Canada's health care wait times in 2016 longest-ever recorded: Fraser Institute report | CTV News
That's why it's called an average and is used to compare country to country.
As long as you have government setting prices and choking the free market, care and prices will continue to be lower quality than what the free market brings us. Competition is what brings us a quality product. There are so many examples of that it's mind boggling. There are so many examples of government run failure.
You made it about you and your one example vs all the other data we have. Really?
No, the quality of health care is a lot better in Canada.....
Neither Canada nor Japan cracked the top 10, and the United States finished a dismal 35th, according to a much anticipated ranking of healthcare quality in 195 countries, released Friday.
No, the quality of health care is a lot better in Canada.....
Neither Canada nor Japan cracked the top 10, and the United States finished a dismal 35th, according to a much anticipated ranking of healthcare quality in 195 countries, released Friday.
Oh really...why don't you tell that to my aunt in toronto thats been on a waiting list to see a specialist regarding her cancer!!!
Oh really...why don't you tell that to my aunt in toronto thats been on a waiting list to see a specialist regarding her cancer!!!
I expect she would also be waiting in the US. The main reasons for these wait times is aging baby boomers and a shortage of professional health workers, not private or public health care.
Oh really...why don't you tell that to my aunt in toronto thats been on a waiting list to see a specialist regarding her cancer!!!
My Mom had cancer in Canada -- outside Toronto -- smaller community. She was diagnosed and within days was starting treatment.
Can't speak for your particular aunt's issues but all of my family in Canada with all their ailments, etc. have never waited.
I suspect more to the story.
Is the Canada system perfect -- no but you don't here Canadians complaining about their system as much as Americans do -- so something must be working.
There are people in the USA with cancer that don't know it because they can't afford to go to a doctor....
Cost of resoruces, distribution of resources and other factors influence the quality of care.
I expect she would also be waiting in the US. The main reasons for these wait times is aging baby boomers and a shortage of professional health workers, not private or public health care.
It wouldn't suit the narrative necessary to bolster their belief.
I routinely hear stories of delayed treatment plans every year while wintering in Florida and that state has it's share of treatment centers. It's either arguing with insurance providers that has resulted in a whole industry springing up of advisor companies existing for the sole purpose of mediating a denial of coverage or payment, or it is exactly the same situation with the specialist the insurance company demands someone see having a waiting list you could almost imagine has been designed so the poor victim dies before a single dollar is spent to treat their cancer.
A friend had a cancer right dead center of the top of his head that was the ugliest thing to behold but his appointment to see a specialist was governed by his insurance company disputing his Florida Dr. prescribed treatment program and requiring him to see a specialist they approved of back in N.Y. state so this guy decides to wait until he returns home (a two month delay) and you can guess how that worked out for him.
My wife and I load up on epipens to take down there every year due to the costs of those skyrocketing in the last few years in the U.S.. I'm prescribed Nasonex for allergy symptoms I haven't experienced in years but still routinely get the refills to share with Americans paying through the nose for that down there. We are at the mercy of American border agents though should they ever require us to show prescriptions for those epipens. We have been asked and when told we were taking them to fixed income Americans that one time we were allowed to take them through customs. It's just a matter of time though before the sympathies of the agent are over-ridden by his officialdom.
But as someone said of the Canadian system....Michael Bolen......('we' being Canada).
"So we're better than The United States," he wrote, referring to the rankings. "But should we really aim so low?"
That is so on point it is prophetic. As long as our politicians can keep parroting the "yeah but we're still better than you know who" and getting a pass things will gradually be allowed to slip until we're in the basement with them.
When I think of the possibilities and outcomes if the whole dang continent were using one system that guaranteed everyone a basic but reasonably comprehensive list of coverages including dental and pharma with the bargaining power that would bring to the table. Adding in the tuition costs and ultimate base salaries of doctors being unified, along with their training requirements, it boggles the mind as to how much we could achieve and become the best there is on the entire planet.
Utopia
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