“This was an unexpected victory in a long fight against an illegal cartel of three corporations who have raised their insulin prices in lockstep.”

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.

  • evatronic@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The problem is the government can’t set the price of goods in a private contract between two non-government entities, which is what would need to happen. The various bills you see in states setting co-pay caps is about as close as we can get, and that only happens because the government CAN regulate insurance companies and the policies they offer. While that might, eventually, put pressure on the insurance companies to demand lower prices from the manufacturers, it’s a long way disconnected from the price paid by the patient.

    And regulating copays doesn’t help people without insurance at all.

    That’s why this is such an important step. When prescription coverage was added to Medicare, the ability of the government to negotiate drug prices was specifically striped from the bill. The Inflation Reduction Act added it back, finally. And it’s a huge win. Medicare and Medicaid are enormous programs, and when they throw their weight around, they can affect the markets they’re in dramatically. It’s why the drug companies are already filing suit.

    But the real solution isn’t trying to force private insurance companies to play ball, or make drug manufacturers sell at a low price, it’s to leverage that giant market pressure and expand Medicare eligibility to everyone. And if you’re worried about funding? Don’t be. Unlike social security, Medicare’s tax has no maximum wage.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      government can’t set the price of goods in a private contract between two non-government entities

      What about IRS? I mean they should report taxes. So if they refuse money they report they are getting paid, then it is low-hanging tax fraud. Probably. At least in Europe it would be.

    • Naura@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yup. Everything i hear about health care cost is leverage. I’m glad to see this.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Laws are absolutely real, and this is a testable theory. Go break a law and put in no effort to hide what you’ve done. See what happens.

        What you mean to say is that we can change laws, and that’s true. To do that, you’d need to elect more representatives, nationally, who agree with you - because the government is also very real.

        You live in the real world, whether you like it or not.