What do you think of the ...?

[joebot1]

Only in America folks!.

[walterodim82]

reminds me of that Michael Moore documentary "Sicko"

[soulfungus57]

Damn what a hassle makes you want not to do drugs. Probably chearer to buy on the streets

[TrooperCX]

Healthcare is "privatized" which means somebody's making a WHOLE lot of money. Also, it's not surprising the dr.'s office doesn't help with compliance, that's more like something your insurance should be dealing with. You have no idea how much hospitals will overcharge patients and slap it on their insurance bill thinking, ah what the hell

[daudnew2009]

That is what a classmate told me. She was working in a doctor office and they were billing the insurance and the patient. Then the patient paid, the insurance paid, and they never gave the money back to the patient! The ethical problem is also the fact that medicine cannot and shouldn't be practiced on the condition: you have money I treat you, you don't have money, it is your choice. Or at least I don't remember that part of the Hippocratic oath.

[TrooperCX]

that shirt is the bomb

[daudnew2009]

Yes! Unfortunately you didn't see it all, but it is the same of the cover of a batman comic of when I was young! And even better is the fact that I bought it for 2-3 dollars, because I generally buy these t-shirts when they are on sale!

[mozzy76]

Daud, you're right, but the fact is that the welfare in Europe (and in Italy too) let the medicine "real" cost be up to the State: so, if you pay 2Euros, for sure much more is payed by the states through taxation for that pills...

I suppose that both systems are not perfect, anyway.

[daudnew2009]

Right, but I also said, that I could get the same medicine without prescirption, and it would cost 22$. Which means to be clear: u r american & come to Italy x vacation, u forgot your Blood Pressure control pills, since u r not Italian you pay the FULL PRICE, which is 22$! While in US the full price of the same drug is 90$ without insurance, and 30$ with insurance, which means they are stealing 8$ more than what u pay in italy without prescription! But I'm sure they gain some money on it right?

[mozzy76]

Right... So: a more wide extension of health rights is needed. BUT, anyway, there's always the problem of costs: if the State bears the whole system, the health research will go down, the reverse, will advantage just upper classes who can spend a lot more!

[daudnew2009]

Ok, but the thing is why you as American would pay 22 dollars in Italy, and you don't have an insurance there, and the Italian state obviously is not paying for you, while the same drug in USA cost 90 dollars without insurance??? To me 68 dollars difference cannot be justified with the mantra of the research, because the same medicine cost 22 dollars in Europe which means same research, since europeans don't come from Mars.

[zthustra]

I have known people who made annual trips to Mexico and filled their prescriptions south of the border. I think they prohibit this now, but it used to be very common. They came back with a year's supply from Mexico for less than the cost of one month's supply in the US. The manufacturer and the packaging of the product was IDENTICLE. We have been ripped off for many, many years in the US by the pharmacorps and their drug pushers in the AMA.

[DeletedDelusion]

In Switzerland we pay also much more then customers in Italy for the exact same product, even or especially if the product is made by a Swiss company.

As far as I know this is because the big pharmacy companies like Novartis or Roche do have an "excellent" lobby here in Switzerland.

I wouldn't be surprised if the same was true for the states.

[BelieveNoGod]

I live in Norway, and medicine is expensive.

We can ask either the doctor or the pharmacist, if there are another manufacturer for the same type of medicine wich is cheaper.

Often the doctor is 'sponsored' , so he will try to recommend only the one type, but the pharmacists don't do this.

I saved 10$ on one box of 20 pills just by asking for a cheaper type.

Those companies only see profit, not helping ppl. Aids medicine f.ex. are so profitable, they don't want to sell them in Africa.

[DeletedDelusion]

Companies only interested in profits?

Of course, profit is their only reason for existence.

The terrible thing is that it probably starts in research. If a sickness is not widespread enough and promises a big profit, the companies probably won't even start research for that, except if they think they could use it as a advertisement tool maybe.

Just look how many differnent drugs there are against pain, high blood pressure or depression, it's where the big bucks are.

Can we blame them?

[BelieveNoGod]

I know they need to make money. But as daud points out, the same drug are much cheaper 'across the border'.

So it's easy to draw the conclusion that someone are getting 'ripped off', and the companies have NO scruples doing so.

[daudnew2009]

Personally I keep a positive outlook at life. If I didn't change job, I would never had the problem. If I didn't have the problem, I wouldn't try to solve it. Now the funny part is that those greedy american drug companies are getting screwed, and I hope more Americans will buy their drugs abroad, because when one of my relatives go to the doctor in Italy I ask them to fill a prescription for my medicine, and then they send it to me. Which means that now in 1 year I will save 348 dollars ahaha!

[ffejpsycho]

I live in Canada, and while I feel our health care is better than in the U.S., It still has problems. One such problem we still have is we are over charged for medications as well...

[CASEwithscience]

Im not american (Australian), but I feel very sorry for your situation.

[beyrus]

Yes, you've discovered just how INSANE our health care is in the USA. Thankfully it was just with prescription medicines and not with some catastrophic illness such as a heart attack. You are absolutely right we are being royally ripped off. This is what happens when medicine is based on profit and not on real health care.

[daudnew2009]

Well, I'm not denying their rights to make money, since we must all live, pay mortgages and so on. But 22$ paid in Europe without prescription, and 90$ paid here for the same medicine, to me seems really a robbery, which the people in the government, if they are not paid by drug companies, should rectify. Well, let's hope that maybe through raising the awreness of the problem, some changes can be done.