# Health Care Costs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-costs/784810>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 19, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-costs/784810 "2017-04-19T21:01:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dopefan99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@dopefan99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dopefan99)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-costs/784810/1 "2017-04-19T21:01:21Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> We all remember the outcry when Mylan marked up its EpiPen by 400 percent, but that was merely an extreme example of the rational-capitalist behavior drug firms engage in all the time. When your product can literally save a life, and you’ve got a 20-year patent monopoly on it, you’ll tend to price it like the goldmine it is unless someone steps in to regulate you.

Wow! This is a horrific answer! It is mostly wrong… I’m highly disappointed in Cecil Adams.

Cecil says the problem is unregulated capitalism. No! The problem is overly regulated crony capitalism that stops any competitor from selling injectable epinephrine for illegitimate reasons.

The epinephrine in an EpiPen can be bought for about $0.10. That is less regulated capitalism. If one vendor jacked up the price, consumers can buy the same epinephrine from a similar vendor for ~$0.10.

The health care regulation stopped many other EpiPen-like products from being sold for wildly illegitimate reasons. The crony regulation is the problem, not the solution.

For a much better explanation of the EpiPen issue which highlights the bigger problems with the health industry read:

> **[Reverse Voxsplaining: Drugs vs. Chairs](https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/08/29/reverse-voxsplaining-drugs-vs-chairs/)**
>
> \[Content note: this is pretty much a rehash of things I’ve said before, and that other people have addressed much more eloquently. My only excuse for wasting your time with it again is that S…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-costs/784810/2 "2017-04-24T19:45:32Z")

</div>

What about Adrenaclick? That serves the same purpose as the EpiPen, and is made by a different company. AFAIK, they are still on the market.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-costs/784810/3 "2017-04-26T13:35:17Z")

</div>

> [@dopefan99](#):
>
> Cecil says the problem is unregulated capitalism. No! The problem is overly regulated crony capitalism that stops any competitor from selling injectable epinephrine for illegitimate reasons.

To be fair, Cecil refers to the drug companies doing the rational capitalist thing, not the entire system being rational capitalism.