Orphan drug availability. In the EU, Finland,France, Germany and Sweden supply the most orphan drugs (20-21 out of 22) affordably. The UK supplies only 15 and makes patients pay for up to 94% per cent of the cost.
--- Paul Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am sorry to hear about your health situation. > > I think you are drawing exactly the wrong conclusions > about the conclusions for the health care system. > > First of all, I agree that the UK, Canada, Australia > are all unnecessarily stingy health care system. > The reason for that (as far as I can tell) is because > their political system tend to unduly favor conservatives > who in turn try to keep Health Service funds low (compared > to the other health systems in the First World - all of them > except the US, government run) > Do you know how, for instance, what the situation in > Germany is like for orphan drugs? (I don't, I should > look it up). > > Anyway, orphan drugs is actually an example of market failure > and a good case could be made that the government should > have a nationalized pharmaceutical company to manufacturing > them and the R&D expense of developing should come out > of the government R&D budgets - which, IIRC, is where most > of the expense of orphan drugs comes from. It also occurs > to me, that jacking up the price on a drug for which there > is no market allows the drug companies to get bigger tax > breaks when they give it away. > > Even so, medical resources are expensive, involving both > material and labor inputs that can be exceedingly scarce. > If it were in principle possible to allocate all the money > needed to avoid tough, "who lives, who dies", rationing > dilemmas, it would still takes year to put such a system > into place (assuming it is possible). > > My brother-in-law died in his early 30's because he had > decided to pay for a crappy insurance policy and it delayed > him from getting to doctor in a timely way (it wasn't cancer > but DVT, > a doctor's visit days before his death literally might have saved his > life). As many as 200,000 people in the US die from it each year. > That's my health care story. > > > > > > > --- Admiral Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I like your in-depth analysis: "The healthcare guys." > > > > Do they carry around a big bag of healthcare to dole out skimpily > to > > the > > poor and needy? > > > > Lemme tell you a REAL healthcare story. > > > > I have whatcha call one of those orphan diseases. It's incurable, > > it's > > progressive, but it's treatable, to slow down my imminent demise. > > > > My pharmacy bill ran over $300k last year, because most of the > drugs > > I take > > are only taken by the few of us who have this disease (you DO > > remember the > > economy of scale, don't you?). It will likely cost that much > > annually for > > the rest of my life. > > > > If I had no insurance, the companies would give it to me. > > > > If I had lousy insurance, there are foundations which will help > with > > the > > costs. > > > > However, in the UK, that paragon of the National Health Service, > > they've > > just decided not to carry five of the six medications for my > disease. > > If > > that one that's left doesn't treat you, then you're sunk. > > > > Canada? One of my pals died there last year because the health > board > > > > fiddled around too long to get her proper treatment. > > > > Australia? One of my pals died there because not only would the > > government > > not buy the drug from overseas because of the cost, they wouldn't > let > > him > > buy any with his own money and import it. > > > > Yeah, it's not great here, but like Churchill said, it's better > than > > the > > alternatives. > > > > Ellen H. > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Tom Piwowar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[email protected]> > > Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 8:35 PM > > Subject: Re: [CGUYS] Why not the US? > > > > > > > The healthcare guys are doing it too. > > > They make the cost so high that people will inevitably die. And > > they skim > > > lots of money off the top to support their own lavish lifestyles. > > > > > > > > > > ************************************************************************* > > ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, > privacy > > ** > > ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at > http://www.cguys.org/ > > ** > > > ************************************************************************* > > > > > Checkout One Laptop Per Child project laptop.org > > > ************************************************************************* > ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy > ** > ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ > ** > ************************************************************************* > Checkout One Laptop Per Child project laptop.org ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
