I wonder how much this has to do with Pharma reps visiting doctors…
Good fucking luck finding one when you need. AFAIK, “compounding pharmacies” are mostly small one-off independent pharmacists, most of whom are driven out of business by the major chains, none of which do compounding.
Maybe there are still a few around, if you can find them.
No shit Sherlock! I had an asthma inhaler that cost me about $90 (that was just the co-pay) for a three month supply.
Well, surprise, surprise! One day I called for a three-month refill, and when I got it, the co-pay was $600 (yes, that was just the co-pay)! Which they went ahead and billed to my credit card, with no advance notice. (This had nothing to do, AFAIK, with any change of propellant.)
My doctor found a different inhaler that seems to work as well, which I now pay $90 a month for.
I actually know where one lives, it’s on Broadway around NE 25th in Portland OR. Thing is, yes, most are small and don’t have much scale BUT can you imagine what would happen if every compounding pharmacy in California suddenly got a huge influx of state cash to boost their efforts? Think that might make a dent in the big pharma companies bottom lines? They have the knowledge, all they need is the resources and demand to rocket them into the stratosphere–and California IS the sixth (or maybe fifth) largest economy in the WORLD. If California decides to take on a problem and is serious about it, they can make a gigantic wave of influence.
My guess would be, if there was some real money in it, then the big chain pharmacies would get into the compounding business. The small independent pharmacy operators would still be run out of business, as all small independent business operators are when they try to compete with the Big Boys.
Depends on how the state money was dispensed and structured. There’s no actual rule that says everybody who wants it can jump onto a program–the state could make a carve out that disallows the big chains to hop on the bandwagon for a long enough period to allow the compounding pharmacies (who, after all, have been at the forefront of helping patients get the exact formulations they need at a price they can manage) to get enough of an advantage to keep them on top of that particular food chain. With SCROTUS busily dismantling federal control of just about anything it’s going to be vanishingly difficult to bring restraint of trade or monopoly suits against the state, and if California keeps all the legal shit in state courts then federal overturn of its programs will become less and less successful.
We offer basic medication compounding at all neighborhood Walgreens pharmacies. We also offer more complex compounding services at some of our pharmacies
Except people intent on committing suicide.
I have to take 300 units of two different types of insulin per day. This would be unbearably expensive without my insurance.
Is that what happened? I’m still salty that my Flovent went from being fully covered by insurance years ago to costing me $80 for a 2-month supply.
Yep. The propellants changed to protect the ozone layer. All the manufacturers used it as an excuse to increase prices.
And if you think that’s bad, check out what happened to the price of epi-pens.
Without insurance people are really screwed because the costs involved get to be prohibitive very quickly.
The price of epipens went up because the manufacturer decided they could make more money at a higher price point. They might have misjudged, because some competition did spring up as a result. Or maybe it was worth it to them, and their profits are up.
Do US competition laws apply to states when they provide a public service?
I’m sure all of that is of great comfort to those people who might actually DIE if they can’t afford to purchase one, but then go into allergic shock.
But let’s keep worshiping at the altar of The Free Market regardless of the human carnage that might result.
That’s true of lots of drugs, not just epi pens. It’s among the reasons our entire health care system is broken.
True, that. So far we’ve had a couple examples, I’m sure we can all go on and on about this.
Well, there is:
Which might be taken to stand for the proposition that states can discriminate against out of state residents when acting in a non-regulatory producer/supplier role (and so, might fairly make their product available to state residents at a discount, to avoid the risk that all the product meant to improve the lives of residents might be scooped up by interstate buyers and sold elsewhere for a huge profit). But of course that was a 5-4 SCOTUS decision forty years ago. Who knows what that’s worth now, seeing as precedent doesn’t matter and this might hurt profits for some billionaires.
There’s a meme floating around that basically states that the three things that should NEVER be privatized are healthcare, prisons and schools because those institutions translate exactly to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and are therefore expected to be under the exclusive purview of government. I think that’s a pretty reasonable take on our current situation where we can see that the fetish of privatization of public goods for the sake of private profits has proven to be an absolute, utter, abysmal failure. I think it’s way past time to rake all this back into the umbrella of government and put some smart people to work fixing this shit like right fucking now.
Good luck with that. Recall how Obama got creamed in the 2010 election because he actually tried, in a limited way, to do something about it.
Don’t those only apply, if they apply at all, to selling below the cost of production?
And I’m not sure that in general even that’s illegal in the USA. Stores routinely carry “loss leaders”, after all.
Y’know what? Either people wake the fuck up and force change or we’re all gonna die screaming. We’re at that tipping point and quite frankly I’m tired of endlessly putting my energy into learned helplessness and faux cynicism. Sure, that might score some cool points with people I personally have zero respect for but it’s obvious that quite a lot of people would rather make doom pronouncements than to go out on a limb and declare they want more positive outcomes and tangible change. That’s the choice we all have and I know which way I’m leaning. I’m a Wiccan, and a firm and basic tenet of my belief system is “as below, so above.” Creating small pockets of positive change impetus and encouraging them in others does much more to help the world than to continually tear people down for their optimism. But tearing down, making fun and mocking people for their hope is definitely more fashionable.