Mylan CEO on EpiPen drug price controversy: "I get the outrage"

a reply to: ganjoa
Your commenton on advertising is spot on. A graph shows the utilization increase side by side with the introduction of advertising when it was deregulated. We could battle this problem if we could get physicians to understand that they should be angry and be the main champions to fix this national tragedy. Last night I had dinner with a endocrinologist and he was upset with the cost of insulin but I felt he wasn't angry enough about it. He gets paid well lives a good life style etc. essentially he knows it's an issue but doesn't know how to fix. Plus I have gotten the feeling that people that can fix it don't want to: doctors, lawyers, politicians, insurance. Too much money.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: Edumakated

This is a service industry, not many service industries charge me for your bill.

Every business charges for their losses. The problem with healthcare is that the losses on any individual customer are so extreme.

Yes they do. You just don't see it in the price. With healthcare, everyone knows the price you pay covers those who don't pay because we know people not paying is an issue. People also are keenly aware that healthcare is expensive so there is a natural curiosity as to why.

In other businesses, it isn't an issue that garners a lot of attention and therefore most people don't think about the effect it has on prices. EVERY business has to track it's losses at every step in the supply chain. Those costs are then included in the price that their customers pay. For example, if you don't think the price you pay at a retail store doesn't factor in the cost of shoplifting (customers who don't pay) then I have some beachfront property to sell you in Arkansas.

As someone else mentioned, your car insurance rates most certainly take into account the fact that some driver's don't have insurance. These companies track how much they spend because of uninsured driver's and those costs are spreadout amongst the paying customers.

You are all missing something. The cost of Government. My Doctor is in a practice with five other Doctors. Each Doctor has an appointment setter and a nurse that assists him. This adds up to 18 people who are actually generating revenue. Then there are another 30 people who are there to process the insurance paperwork. Out of the 30 only 5 are needed to handle the paperwork for non-government insurance. The other 25 are there to handle Government paper work.

When I visit my Sister in Maryland, I go past building upon building of Federal Government offices, who's people process the paper work sent to them. When I go to Harrisburg there are buildings where people process the same paper work as the people in Maryland. Our local hospital just built two brand new buildings that are going to be used by people who process more paper work.

All of these people are overhead. They have to be paid for, but, they don't generate any revenue. I mean no disrespect, unless we are being paid for engineering time I AM OVERHEAD. In a private business, overhead is something that is to be reduced as much as possible, but, Government doesn't have to turn a profit. They have no incentive to reduce overhead as a matter of fact, since the Public Sector Unions were allowed into Government there is incentive to increase the number of people processing this paper work.

a reply to: Edumakated

Front line doctors salaries, no. Endorsements, kickbacks, gifts from drug company reps, all with the intention of getting products put to market, whether they happen to have merit or not though? Those things cost money, money which should not be spent, represents a cost which should not exist.

And what about the companies which design these drugs? Once the initial investment of time has been paid for, the research and development time (in many cases that is not nearly as much as you might think), what excuse is there for having a single treatment which costs near to or more than a regular persons monthly salary? There simply is no justification, and yet there are doctors, doctors of chemistry, pharmacology involved. So yes, its legitimate to call out doctors involved with the creation of these drugs, because if they had any moral fibre about them, they would simply refuse to make drugs for these big companies, unless these companies were prepared to sell them at a rate that meant they could be afforded by anyone who actually NEEDS the damned things.

a reply to: Edumakated

Absolutely right...MCE Conferences Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs are designed by primary care healthcare professionals who are leaders in their field. Evidence-based, clinically-focused and absolutely commercial-free primary care CME Conferences. Half-day CME sessions at great family friendly destinations. CME does not get better than this - www.mceconferences.com

a reply to: TrueBrit

BINGO!
I could not agree more with the above post.

Regards. Iwinder