Members Choice Biden administration adds Insulin to drug price negotiation list in major blow to Big Pharma

[Social Media]

 

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION pleasantly stunned health care reform advocates Tuesday by including short-acting insulin in its list of 10 drugs for which Medicare will negotiate lower prices, power vested in the White House by the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The IRA was passed in the face of one of the heftiest barrages of lobbying in congressional history, with the pharmaceutical industry spending more than $700 million over 2021 and 2022 — several times more than the second- and third-ranking industries — much of it aimed at stopping the legislation, watering it down, or undermining its implementation. 

 

The industry succeeded in narrowing the scope of the new law, with only 10 drugs eligible for negotiation in 2023. But the effort to stop the administration from using that authority to target blockbuster drugs failed spectacularly, as the White House list includes medications that seniors spend billions on in out-of-pocket costs alone, never mind the fees paid by Medicare itself. But it was the inclusion of the broad swath of ingredients and medical devices needed to make insulin that sets the White House move apart and which will likely have the most far-reaching impact. 

 

FULL STORY

[Tug]

Now that folks is how you drain the swamp!get her done team Biden!this alone will save billions in tax dollars that can be used elsewhere and thanks for starting the thread!

[retarius]

Medicare Part D was the biggest con trick. Pharma (Big Pharma's lobbying group) spent just 10 million dollars to buy a few blue dog senators to block the legislation unless it included a clause stating that the government (the only payer) was not allowed to negotiate prices with the manufacturers. Note that all other government purchased drug prices are at 'best price' meaning the lowest price at which the manufacture sells the product in the US. Some Medicaid (poor people) can get drugs very cheap but pensioners on Medicare cannot. It's outrageous in my opinion. And please don't bring up the old canard about the industry spending lots on research. They spend much more on marketing than they do on research.

[retarius]

36 minutes ago, Tug said:

Now that folks is how you drain the swamp!get her done team Biden!this alone will save billions in tax dollars that can be used elsewhere and thanks for starting the thread!

Biden is a demented idiot who needs to be impeached for his total corruption. He should be in jail.

[Tug]

38 minutes ago, retarius said:

Biden is a demented idiot who needs to be impeached for his total corruption. He should be in jail.

Do you need a match for your gas light? Lol ???? 

[Chomper Higgot]

Dark Brandon getting it done for Americans.

[billd766]

4 hours ago, retarius said:

Biden is a demented idiot who needs to be impeached for his total corruption. He should be in jail.

On what grounds, what charges and with what evidence and proof.

 

You know, all the petty little things that make up justice equal for all people.

[Sing_Sling]

5 hours ago, retarius said:

Biden is a demented idiot who needs to be impeached for his total corruption. He should be in jail.

 

27 minutes ago, billd766 said:

On what grounds, what charges and with what evidence and proof.

 

You know, all the petty little things that make up justice equal for all people.

 

Facts, facts . . . irrelevant to the inbreds.

I was sent to a meeting in Chicago years back and got sick, nothing major just a flue-type infection and was asked to go to the hospital down the road to get it sorted out.  20 minutes and $800 later - I had a prescription.

 

Utter madness

All the other times I worked in the US I was on the company health cover . . . it's no wonder many people have to mortgage their homes to pay their medical bills.
 

[placeholder]

5 hours ago, retarius said:

Biden is a demented idiot who needs to be impeached for his total corruption. He should be in jail.

Totally corrupt yet taking on Big Pharma? Actually the bill would have been a lot stronger were it not for 2 DINOs named Sinema and Manchin.  It's also interesting to recall that the previous occupant of the White House campaigned on this as well, but he abandoned that promise even before he was inaugurated.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/471735-trump-draws-ire-after-retreat-on-drug-prices-pledge/

 

Just keeping that swamp full.

[Tug]

6 hours ago, Sing_Sling said:

 

 

Facts, facts . . . irrelevant to the inbreds.

I was sent to a meeting in Chicago years back and got sick, nothing major just a flue-type infection and was asked to go to the hospital down the road to get it sorted out.  20 minutes and $800 later - I had a prescription.

 

Utter madness

All the other times I worked in the US I was on the company health cover . . . it's no wonder many people have to mortgage their homes to pay their medical bills.
 

All during my working career I lived in absolute terror of getting hurt or becoming ill I could have lost everything I worked so hard for it’s truly refreshing to have an administration trying to do good for the American people and  not for the large donors 

[ozimoron]

This isn't going well for those who think Biden and the Dems are in the pocket of Big Pharma.

 

 

[candide]

Go go Dark Brandon against the big pharma swamp!

 

The price of Insulin in the U.S. is scandalous! 8 times the price in other countries such as Canada! 

 

[herfiehandbag]

19 hours ago, billd766 said:

On what grounds, what charges and with what evidence and proof.

 

You know, all the petty little things that make up justice equal for all people.

You don't need that really - after all European fascism was never really reliant on such procedures.

 

So just enough people to form a crowd, in some sort of a uniform (used to be brown shirts, but now silly red hats seem to be de rigeur) to bellow "lock em up".

 

It's nice if their collective IQ is greater than the sum of the BMIs of the crowd, but not essential, and even looking at some of the pretty impressive BMIs to be observed at Trump rallies, somewhat unlikely!

 

The "American Experiment" has gone a little astray!

[herfiehandbag]

10 hours ago, candide said:

The price of Insulin in the U.S. is scandalous! 8 times the price in other countries such as Canada! 

The price of the insulin which I am dependent on here in Thailand is a few percent of the price in the US, what is more it is produced in and imported from Europe (Poland).

 

The amount which the Pharmaceutical Industry in the USA charges for Insulin is an example of the wicked greed which drives the industry.

 

I am no socialist but in the particular case of the American Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Industries I would nationalise them and start again. They are an utter disgrace.

[impulse]

Just out of curiosity, you guys taking insulin...  How many use the brands specified on the OP linked HHS press release?

 

• Fiasp; Fiasp FlexTouch; Fiasp PenFill; NovoLog; NovoLog FlexPen; NovoLog PenFill

 

Another question I have is whether the discounts will accrue to the patients in the form of lower copays, and how much will just be sucked up by the Medicare machine?  

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

Just out of curiosity, you guys taking insulin...  How many use the brands specified on the OP linked HHS press release?

 

• Fiasp; Fiasp FlexTouch; Fiasp PenFill; NovoLog; NovoLog FlexPen; NovoLog PenFill

 

Another question I have is whether the discounts will accrue to the patients in the form of lower copays, and how much will just be sucked up by the Medicare machine?  

• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, administrative costs in Medicare are only about 2 percent of operating expenditures. Defenders of the insurance industry estimate administrative costs as 17 percent of revenue.

https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20110920.013390/

 

Wherever did you come up with that cockamamie nonsense about the Medicare machine?

 

The article says the drugs are from the three main companies. It also notes that the move went further than expected since it also includes fast-acting insulin.

I can see that you're trying to find some desperate way to shoot holes in this. The fact is that Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to this. Remember that it took Trump only about 10 days after he was elected to break his promise to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma. 

 

 

[impulse]

6 hours ago, placeholder said:

I can see that you're trying to find some desperate way to shoot holes in this. The fact is that Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to this. Remember that it took Trump only about 10 days after he was elected to break his promise to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma. 

It still remains to be seen whether the prices will go down much, if at all.  I'm still recalling the disappointment most people felt after the promise of Obamacare, and the increase in insurance costs.  Last year of my participation, I was paying $1,200 a month for a policy with a $7,000 deductible.  Meaning I had to incur $21,400 in expenses before Obamacare paid a dime.  I wasn't impressed with that "Affordable Care".

 

And you still didn't answer the question.  How much of any discount will be passed on to the patients in the form of reduced out of pocket costs?

[heybruce]

3 hours ago, impulse said:

It still remains to be seen whether the prices will go down much, if at all.  I'm still recalling the disappointment most people felt after the promise of Obamacare, and the increase in insurance costs.  Last year of my participation, I was paying $1,200 a month for a policy with a $7,000 deductible.  Meaning I had to incur $21,400 in expenses before Obamacare paid a dime.  I wasn't impressed with that "Affordable Care".

 

And you still didn't answer the question.  How much of any discount will be passed on to the patients in the form of reduced out of pocket costs?

Yeah, real socialized medicine like they have in Canada and much of Europe would be much better.

[gargamon]

14 minutes ago, heybruce said:

Yeah, real socialized medicine like they have in Canada and much of Europe would be much better.

Canada free health care? Hardly. It comes out of your taxes. But the killer for these socialized medicine countries is the queuing and the delays. Need to see a GP? We can get you in in a month. Need a specialist? First see your GP in a month, then get referred to the specialist where you might get an initial consult in 6 months. Then if you need some procedure you can wait years.

 

At least in the US, if you're insured, you can get things done relatively quickly. What they need is single payer to cover the uninsured. 

[impulse]

20 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Canada free health care? Hardly. It comes out of your taxes. But the killer for these socialized medicine countries is the queuing and the delays.

Were the Canuck and UK health care systems always so messed up, or is that a recent phenomena?

 

[heybruce]

15 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Canada free health care? Hardly. It comes out of your taxes. But the killer for these socialized medicine countries is the queuing and the delays. Need to see a GP? We can get you in in a month. Need a specialist? First see your GP in a month, then get referred to the specialist where you might get an initial consult in 6 months. Then if you need some procedure you can wait years.

 

At least in the US, if you're insured, you can get things done relatively quickly. What they need is single payer to cover the uninsured. 

Perhaps, however in these countries with government provided taxpayer funded health care the people know who to blame if the system isn't working as well as expected.  Plus it's much cheaper than what the US is doing.

 

I would consider a hybrid system, but it would have to perform better and cheaper than the current US system.  That shouldn't be difficult.

 

Wasn't that one of Trump's 2016 campaign promises; better and cheaper healthcare than Obamacare?  I wonder whatever became of that.

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, heybruce said:

Wasn't that one of Trump's 2016 campaign promises; better and cheaper healthcare than Obamacare?  I wonder whatever became of that.

Democrat Congress.  Couldn't possibly give him a win.  But that's a problem on both sides of the aisle. 

 

Besides, when did they have time, energy or political capital to do anything but impeach him?

[gargamon]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

Were the Canuck and UK health care systems always so messed up, or is that a recent phenomena?

 

The queues have always been there, but are much worse now. 

 

Canada, it's a good place to live if you want to be on the dole. And remember, Canada cuts down the tall trees. Talent goes south of the border and earns real money. 

[heybruce]

4 hours ago, impulse said:

Democrat Congress.  Couldn't possibly give him a win.  But that's a problem on both sides of the aisle. 

 

Besides, when did they have time, energy or political capital to do anything but impeach him?

No, the Republicans had both the House and the Senate.  https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congress_elections,_2016

 

Trump didn't propose anything because he had nothing.

[impulse]

41 minutes ago, heybruce said:

5 hours ago, impulse said:

Democrat Congress.  Couldn't possibly give him a win.  But that's a problem on both sides of the aisle. 

 

Besides, when did they have time, energy or political capital to do anything but impeach him?

No, the Republicans had both the House and the Senate.  https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congress_elections,_2016

 

Trump didn't propose anything because he had nothing.

Oh, caught me.  I should have said "unfriendly Congress"

 

Years ago, I worked for a company that had 2 warring factions, each led by a VP that desperately wanted to be president.  When the company president moved on, corporate hired an outsider to come in to replace him.  That's the only time I ever saw those two guys and their factions cooperate, was to sabotage him and get rid of the new guy.  Which took them about 2 years.  That's the sense I got when Trump was in the White House.  Most Repubs wanted him out of their career paths almost as much as most Dems wanted him off the Earth...

[stevenl]

2 minutes ago, impulse said:

Oh, caught me.  I should have said "unfriendly Congress"

 

Years ago, I worked for a company that had 2 warring factions, each led by a VP that desperately wanted to be president.  When the company president moved on, corporate hired an outsider to come in to replace him.  That's the only time I ever saw those two guys and their factions cooperate, was to sabotage him and get rid of the new guy.  Which took them about 2 years.  That's the sense I got when Trump was in the White House.  Most Repubs wanted him out of their career paths almost as much as most Dems wanted him off the Earth...

Sure, that's why they all voted for his impeachments.

[impulse]

8 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Sure, that's why they all voted for his impeachments.

Yup.  Same thing happened with those 2 guys at that company.  In public, and in front of the corporate bigwigs, they supported him.  Or they would have been gone...  Behind his back, they couldn't wait to get rid of him.

 

As it turned out, they both got canned a few months after the outsider.

[heybruce]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

Oh, caught me.  I should have said "unfriendly Congress"

 

Years ago, I worked for a company that had 2 warring factions, each led by a VP that desperately wanted to be president.  When the company president moved on, corporate hired an outsider to come in to replace him.  That's the only time I ever saw those two guys and their factions cooperate, was to sabotage him and get rid of the new guy.  Which took them about 2 years.  That's the sense I got when Trump was in the White House.  Most Repubs wanted him out of their career paths almost as much as most Dems wanted him off the Earth...

None of that changes the fact that when reminded of his promises on healthcare Trump had nothing.  He never had anything, just talk.