I am so f*****g stupid

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B, the cost you have been told just doesn't sound right. Compare these New Zealand prices:
http://www.schickersunichem.co.nz/buy-s ... in-nz.html

If they try to charge you a huge amount of money then use this information to publicise the disparity if you can, and expose the rip off.

I'm sorry you were/are upset; you were not "fkg stupid", rather you made an assumption that was reasonable in the circumstances at that time. If anything you are entitled to feel let down rather than beat yourself up.

Some say Americans effectively subsidize medication for the rest of the developed world.

This is what the CEOs of the drug companies say.
Some have even mentioned Canada by name.

If you can get on your state's medicad.
I just did and I get my generic Cymbalta for $0 instead of paying $220.

I was unable to continue affording my Blue Cross when I had to go to a new plan that cost $168 and this new plan also didn't provide for prescription coverage until I hit the general deductible of $6,600 (it also included all medical costs).

Drug companies are also paying generic companies to keep out of the market as well.

I believe the rest of the world should be forced to pay the market price like the U.S. or lose access to the medication.

I mean it is said and relatively true the rest of the world rides on the U.S. coat tails, instead of pulling their own weight.

I did some reading and discovered that in 2013, the USA passed a law forbidding the negotiation of price with drug companies. The rationale given was very spurious - that this would keep prices down. Other countries have not passed laws like that, and can still negotiate - and they do. It sounds as if your politicians did a deal with Big Pharma to the detriment of US citizens - it's more of a case of USA citizens being ripped off by politicians than subsidizing other countries:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/835182#vp_12

Yep. But you see the line we are sold in the USA is that the USA is paying for everybody and everything which is meant to explain why they can afford to police the world but not take care of their own. And Americans buy it ad nauseum.

Actually that was in 2004(or was it 2003).

That law stated the U.S. Medicad, Medicare, and any other U.S. government program was barred from negotiating with the drug companies.

It was part of the Republican Medicad and Medicare reforms.
The law was repealed by the ACA under Obama to the massive kicking and screaming of the Republican opposition.

All the state ran programs and private programs can negotiate cheaper prices.

The EU, Canada, Japan, China, India, etc... have a price cap on how much they can and how long they can hold that price.
Canada especially negotiates prices to well under cost.
These regulations force the U.S. companies to sell their medications at loss, forcing them to recoup the R&D and other costs in other markets.

Yes, that's what seems to be happening. Political spin to cover-up a stark example of "crony capitalism". USA citizens betrayed AND ripped off..

The law is no longer in place thankfully.

That doesn't make up for the fact that most of the world forces the companies to sell their products at a loss.

What about this?

"The major reason for the disparity in pricing is that the United States lacks any sort of central or universal healthcare system or agency that regulates across the board cost. In contrast, negotiations of drug prices between governments and pharmaceutical companies are routine in Canada, most European nations, and most countries in the Middle East and Far East. They have centralized authorities to negotiate more favorable prices with manufacturers, and some also have drug formularies and advisory boards that put restrictions on the use of new and expensive medications".

(Quote taken from the article linked earlier in this thread)

It is true that New Zealand, for example, has a central drug buying agency (Pharmac) which performs negotiation on behalf of the NZ government and people. There are budget limits and Big Pharma doesn't get to set the prices all by itself - it's a process of negotiation, which does make prices subject to market forces.

Seriously. I'm on 'the left' and I didn't realise how brainwashed we all are until I'd been away for a couple of years. It's quite shocking, to be honest.

I remember bringing up the need for universal health care to my dad, mentioning that it seems to work well in countries like Sweden and Germany, and those countries' economies run pretty well. He responded by saying that countries like Sweden and Germany are like one big family, so universal health care and other social safety nets work there. In the USA, however, he says we are not like that: Instead, we are a country of givers and takers.

Take from that what thou wilt.

That made me smile, it's so inaccurate in terms of New Zealand, and probably the others too. New Zealand politics are neo-liberal and have been for nearly 40 years; there was a brief period when they tried to abolish the national health system - they put cash registers in hospitals (true) - but when they realised that they would lose power as their voting base fell away, they reverted out of self-interest to state funding of public hospitals. We have put up with atrocious things in the name of "the free market" but this was a step too far. They wanted hospitals to run on a business model and make a profit out of illness. You can imagine how this went down with families of for example terminal cancer patients and tetraplegiacs, people turning up with heart attacks...

So at least the public health system survived. People can choose private treatment if they want, and pay for it themselves - so there is choice; but the idea of "family" - that is just a ludicrous idea. Our public health system is not strictly "free" as it is funded from the overall tax base, and everyone in New Zealand pays tax, one way or another - eg 15% on everything you buy, even a child buying an icecream. So it is paid for, by all for the benefit of those who need it, (and this could be any of us at any time - we realise that) the best heart attack facilities etc are in the public system, not the private one, which is run for the benefit of medical specialists (they own the private hospitals and take the profits, so cutting operating costs is profit effective for them).

It can work and it does. It has worked here for the past 80 years.

B19,

I am up to my chin in hospital bills. I don't even know how much I owe total anymore, but I know it is well into the thousands of dollars, possibly approaching 10,000, and that was with insurance.

Nevertheless, it is clear that Obamacare is probably the best thing that can happen to our health care system in a generation, which to be quite honest isn't saying much. It might get gutted for most states this June if the Supreme Court rules in King v. Burwell that people on the federal exchanges cannot receive subsidies (only people on state exchanges can), an essential leg of the stool that is Obamacare (the other two essential legs being the individual mandate and coverage of pre-existing conditions) will crumble in most states. Only about, is it, 13(?) states have set up their own exchanges; the federal government fills in for the other 37 or so states. Since Republicans control most of the state governments and control Congress, it is unlikely they would provide any fix, because of their sharp ideological opposition (even though Obamacare was actually originally a Republican idea from the early 90s). The Republicans themselves cannot even decide on a replacement plan, and one Republican Congressman admitted that 2017 would be the earliest a Republican Congress could provide a fix (when Obama is out of office and possibly a Republican is in office).

Then there is the Tea Party, and the Fox News-ites. Basically, people with attitudes like my dad are holding the entire country hostage.

Yes, it's a political mess and a human tragedy. Health care is a basic need and to make it a political football in the way that the Republicans have - and the ludicrous Tea Party, who are all mad hatters - is a national tragedy for the USA.