Gilead is charging $3,000 for a COVID medicine that costs $10 to produce — and that the American public already paid for
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NEWS: Gilead is charging $3,000 for a COVID medicine that costs $10 to produce — and that the American public already paid for https://t.co/focWglQoWP
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) June 30, 2020
vote for nobody
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July 1, 2020 at 10:32 AM #331886
Your Money, or Your Life.
More evidence we need Single payer, Universal Health Care in this country also.
We are an arrogant species, believing our fantasy based "facts" are better than the other person's fake facts.
If you are wrong, it will be because you are not cynical enough.
Both major political parties are special interest groups enabling each other for power and money, at the expense of the people they no longer properly serve…
Always wear a proper mask when out and about. The life you save could be both yours and mine. -
July 1, 2020 at 11:02 AM #331891
Including Pain and Suffering,
Life and Death.
Neoliberalism = Submission to the Market, and those that own it.
In America, “Liberty” means “Free to Die in Service of Capital” - Amfortas the hippie.
Most of today’s elites have the moral and social reasoning capacities of spoiled toddlers.
“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage...but the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing c
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July 1, 2020 at 11:11 AM #331894
Not right in the moral or ethical or humanist sense of the word, but right as in, “Oh, right. Same old shit.”
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July 1, 2020 at 11:18 AM #331896
Even Giliad doesn’t claim that it cures anything. Because it doesn’t.
If you give a man enough rope, it will be six inches too short. This is not the nature of rope- it is the nature of man.
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July 1, 2020 at 12:05 PM #331901
Important point in the article:
Clinton admin rescinded a rule that made pharmacorps charge ‘reasonable prices’ for medicines developed at government expense. Rs & Ds joined up to keep the rescindment everytime anyone tried to reinstate it. Obama admin refused when some Ds pressured for using existing laws to force down costs; Rs blocked bills that would have enabled Medicare to use its purchasing power to pressure for lower costs.
IOW, the rot is wide and bipartisan. Its been a perennial point that the public pays a lot of the costs of pharma; so many articles and op eds that you’d think everyone knew it by now, what a racket they’ve got going. You pay twice or even 3 times for your medicine.
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July 1, 2020 at 12:10 PM #331902
This is why I don’t give to cancer charities anymore. Ask yourself two simple questions and ponder why they are mutually exclusive.
How much charitable money has been raised for cancer research?
How much are you charged for cancer treatment?
Anyone else see the disconnect? Charities contribute toward the research while drug companies create intentional shortages to keep prices high.
"I welcome their hatred" Franklin D Roosevelt
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July 1, 2020 at 6:17 PM #331938
Yep – and it makes me wonder – when there actually is a vaccine or even a cure… what will they charge for it? No doubt there will be some talk about the cost being determined by the market… as there already has been – but I can’t help but wonder what the makes of a working vaccine would charge. They could probably get away with charging quite a lot – those who could easily pay for it probably would, those of us who would take it but don’t have thousands to pay for it, well…
That is not even counting the many people who say that they will not take a vaccine if it does become available.
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July 1, 2020 at 6:29 PM #331941
warned me about Bernie Sanders socialism. I told her I was more worried about Predatory Capitalism! That shut up her right wing mouth pretty quick!
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July 1, 2020 at 8:20 PM #331953
69% of Americans have less than one thousand dollars in savings. So, for those who’s insurance won’t cover the gilead treatment, they are going to take the debt. A lot of hospitals will be forced to simply eat the cost or refuse treatment – I do not know what the particulars there are, for public hospitals, on what they can and can’t do. Can a public hospital refuse treatment due to a patient’s inability to pay? Yes, they can. The exception is if patients go to the ER – the law states that anyone who goes to an emergency room must be treated – typically, this means that the task of the ER staff is to stabilize the patient before deciding on what, if any further action.
That said, you will still get the bill if you either lack health insurance, or your health insurance doesn’t cover it. There are a lot of particulars to this – and as we see tens of thousands of new cases per day, a percentage will require longer term care, ICU treatment and so on. The costs for that, in some cases, is going to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars…
So what happens to the many patients who can’t pay? Well, in my experience, given the years that I went without health insurance – I did have a general physician of some sort, typically, for the medications I’ve been taking since I was a young teen. They were extremely reluctant to order testing, because testing costs money – a lot of money. An MRI or CT scan will cost in the thousands of dollars – and there was no way in hell I could pay for it, I had no insurance – and this meant that the bill would have to be covered by the hospital’s charity care program – or simply added to my other medical debt.
In time, medical debt will ruin your credit – in my case, it ruined it before I even had a chance to gain any. Applying for loans for pretty much anything was out of the question. When I lived on my own, if I needed something, I either went to second hand stores, catholic charities stores, or, on occasion, rent-a-center (in retrospect, that last one was dumb).
Anyhow, my point is that your quality of care still has much to do with how much you can pay, or how much your insurance can pay. In situations in which a lot of people require a specific drug/treatment, there will be determinations made – those most able to pay will be those most likely to be given the treatment, if it is limited – and chances are it will be.
Gilead will make a whole lot of money from this – but the intent is not to help or save everyone. It is to help and/or save those who can pay. Capitalism.
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July 1, 2020 at 8:24 PM #331955
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July 1, 2020 at 9:32 PM #331988
Gilead will make a whole lot of money from this – but the intent is not to help or save everyone. It is to
help and/or save those who can paymake a profit. Capitalism.We are an arrogant species, believing our fantasy based "facts" are better than the other person's fake facts.
If you are wrong, it will be because you are not cynical enough.
Both major political parties are special interest groups enabling each other for power and money, at the expense of the people they no longer properly serve…
Always wear a proper mask when out and about. The life you save could be both yours and mine. -
July 1, 2020 at 10:19 PM #332004
that we expect and are directing the Congress to set the cost of the medicine and vaccines as soon as they return from summer break. And they are to keep their constituents posted. They will send out posts campaigning for themselves and others anyway.
Sleepy Joe needs to be fully awake on this one, being shaken by We the People on a daily bases. What is that 3……. phone number again? Part of the Movement is to keep it ringing or twittering 24/7.
2020-2024 Campaign Season: We the People are in the fight for our lives and livelihoods.
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July 1, 2020 at 10:29 PM #332009
Even if by some miracle they tried, the Senate or Trump would stop them. There are billions to be made here – by the same billionaires that fund political campaigns. It is all a show. These fuckers will go hide in their mansions for most of the summer anyway.
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