Regarding crazy prescription prices and possible
alternatives.
I believe the answer, or at least most of it, lies
due north. Look to our neighbor to the north, Canada.
Instead of merely importing cheap Canadian
prescription drugs, why not import the whole system that creates those lower
prices in the first place?
Of course, modify the Canadian system for
America's realities and improve upon it where possible.
It's amazing and sad how a majority of 290
million people can be controlled by the PR efforts and scare tactics of the drug
and insurance corporations.
We are the only modern industrialized country not
to offer health insurance for everyone. That is a moral and ethical
problem.
Our current sick health care system is eating both
business, especially small businesses, and government alive from the inside
out. That is an economic problem.
Yet, we still allow the drug and insurance
corporations to buy both political parties and to control the media so that we
are led to believe there are no alternatives.
Below is a post from another person on
a state wide listserve that shows a funny but serious reality of our
current health care system.
It follows...
---
Yesterday's New York Times had a front-page
article about the high proportion of Big Pharma sales reps who were
college-level cheerleaders. The Times said 90,000 people are currently
employed as drug sales reps, and a typical starting salary is around $50,000.
The salary and commission costs for this huge sales force would bother me just a
little less if Big Pharma weren't also blowing billions on advertising,
both to the public on prime time TV and in major newspapers and to doctors
through medical journals.
It would be interesting to know whether drug companies
invest as much money in salespeople in other industrialized nations, all of
which have drug price controls, as they do in America.
Below is a summary of the Times article in
today's Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report.
Kip
New
York Times Examines Former Cheerleaders Working as Drug Company Sales
Representatives
The New York Times on Monday examined how
cheerleading in college has become "a springboard for many careers in
pharmaceutical sales." Cheerleaders -- known for "their athleticism,
postage-stamp skirts and persuasive enthusiasm" -- have "many qualities the drug
industry looks for in its sales force," the Times reports. T. Lynn
Williamson, an advisor for cheerleaders at the University of Kentucky, said pharmaceutical companies looking
for recruits "don't ask what the major is. Exaggerated motions, exaggerated
smiles, exaggerated enthusiasm - they learn those things, and they can get
people to do what they want." The Times reports that while the
number of former cheerleaders who have become drug representatives is unknown,
"demand for them led to the formation of an employment firm," Memphis-based Spirited Sales Leaders.
Thomas Carli of the University of Michigan said sex appeal appears to be a
deliberate strategy of pharmaceutical companies. According to the
Times, "[s]tories abound about doctors who mistook a sales pitch as
an invitation to more." However, Lamberto Andreotti, president of worldwide
pharmaceuticals for Bristol-Myers Squibb, said, "Obviously, people hired for the
work have to be extroverts, a good conversationalist, a pleasant person to talk
to; but that has nothing to do with looks, it's the personality" (Saul,
New York Times, 11/28).
---
Dwayne Voegeli
==================
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Winona] prescription prices
[Winona Online Democracy]
we are self employed and have a huge deductable
just to get the montly rate somewhat affordable. One year my husband had
several tests done and was nearing his deductable, he had a prescription
filled at ShopKo. while still in the store I asked him if he had given
his insurance number to the pharmacy. (we usually don't even bother as we are
not going to meet our deductable unless one of us ends up in the hospital). He
hadn't given them the insurance, so he went back in to the pharmacy.
They had to redo his order because if he used insurance to pay for the
prescription it was cheaper! Now why should that matter? Same medication
but a different price if paid out of pocket or paid through insurance.
Our entire health care system needs help and I
don't know what that help is.
Linda Fort
[Winona Online Democracy]
I find it VERY interesting what pharmacies themselves
charge for drugs. I get a prescription filled in Winona( Walgreens) and pay
cash for it because it is cheaper than paying the co-pay( 9.95 retail vs. the
10.00 co-pay), I was shocked to find out that my local (Eden Prairie, Mn)
Walgreens retails the EXACT same prescription for $17.00, unbelievable how the
same company gouges different zip codes, The last I checked Walgreens don't
have franchise agreements so I don't understand how there can be a 70%
markup/difference in pricing between two company owned stores.
Yahoo!
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