solution to healthcare and income inequality

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: stormson

The solution is for people to realize that neither health care, nor income equality are rights. Cut back the regulations so that people can have more buying power.

Where do you get the idea that cutting regs leads to increase in wages?

a reply to: stormson

The problem is inflation, not a lack of money. All the money in the world can't help a soul if its worthless. So go find a way to deprogram yourself from the cheesey liberal propaganda and look at the truth objectively.

a reply to: seasonal

Cutting regs wont increase wages, and wages aren't the problem. Cutting regs will deflate the cost of living, so that present wages will have more buying power.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Regulations are a much needed thing in any modern society, tax payers money is still cleaning up the mess left after past industrial activity and it's a bill that'll only rise.

British here so I don't have a say on US regulations, but in all honesty I'd call for more regulations internationally. Although somewhat unrelated it's still a big problem in the world.

The exploitation of 3rd world nations. Gathering raw resources whilst poisoning their lands then paying them pennies for the pleasure. They then sell those resources to themselves usually at a massive markup then we the customers shoulder the burden of a burdensome monopoly.

We need more regulation. Fair international price-fixing of resources would go a long way too. Deregulation doesn't benefit the future one bit. It's short-term gains that is fundamentally destroying society... And the earth.

a reply to: RAY1990

The town I live in, Mills River, NC, once had a thriving and prosperous community of dairy farmers. They provided high quality product at a reasonable price for generations. Then the regulators came and choked the industry out. Now Mills River is nothing but trailer parks and retirees from New England and Florida. Now if I want the good dairy, I have to go to the organic store and pay out the nose for it.

Ten years ago, when I was hired on to my pharmacy, it was a prosperous business, and we offered affordable alternatives to many expensive drugs. Now ObamaCare and its regulations have empowered the third party oligarchs (that the law has created) to withhold Rx reimbursements from the pharmacy to the point that we are about to go under. We work twice as hard to sell more Rx's and make a fraction of the profits that we once made. Moreover, our list of discounted generics has shrunk by about 50%

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

What regulations forced them out of the market?

Price fixing is a problem in of itself, though I'm just wanting to know exactly how regulations forced dairy farmers out of business.

Because all I can think of is regulations set upon parts of the business that make it cost prohibitive, aspects of product safety?

Now ObamaCare and its regulations have empowered the third party oligarchs (that the law has created) to withhold Rx reimbursements from the pharmacy to the point that we are about to go under.

I'm from the UK so forgive my misunderstanding, I had to look up Rx... So basically people are getting free or discounted perscriptions and when you the pharmacist try to claim the costs (as you should) you're not being reimbursed?

Where do you stand on rights in this regard? Because as I understand it the government is expecting you to hand out free drugs?

Again forgive any misunderstanding, here you either pay for your drugs or get them free or discounted depending on circumstances, the NHS covered payments most likely do get reimbursement at a later date but nobody is handing out drugs with the risk of never getting paid.

our list of discounted generics has shrunk by about 50% 

Why?

Paracetamol is paracetamol whether its a named brand or not, I can only see this being a problem with prescription-only drugs. Lotions, potions and over the counter pills can be sold by anyone here, over priced drugs at a pharmacist almost guarantees their supply. See paracetamol prescribed by a doctor for instance will cost the prescription, what I pay for the prescription would probably bag me 100 tablets at the local shop or 100's at a supermarket.

I'm just trying to get my head around it, I understand price fixing on controlled substances, it's a problem and easy to implement. I just don't see how the US government can stop or alter the price of non controlled substances.

What's the price of generic painkillers?

a reply to: RAY1990

The dairy farms where probably closed down because of the cost of health regulations. I wasn't raised in this area, I'm just going off of my father in law's account.

The insurance companies make the pharmacies jump through all sorts of unnecessary hoops in order to claim reimbursements. If they deem anything unsatisfactory on our part, we get fined. Medicare, medicaid, and ObamaCare plans (the three major federally funded programs) are the worse for doing this. I don't think the government should have the right to get involved with business at all, whether its health care or dairy farms.

I think insurance is an unnecessary scam that drives up costs, and I would like to see it made illegal somehow.

Paracetamol is paracetamol whether its a named brand or not, I can only see this being a problem with prescription-only drugs. Lotions, potions and over the counter pills can be sold by anyone here, over priced drugs at a pharmacist almost guarantees their supply. See paracetamol prescribed by a doctor for instance will cost the prescription, what I pay for the prescription would probably bag me 100 tablets at the local shop or 100's at a supermarket.

In the US, paracetamol is acetaminophen. It is over the counter, but our discount list is for prescription drugs, not OTCs. Pharmacies are losing profits all over the US, so their abilities to offer affordable prescription generic alternatives for the uninsured are waning.

As far as I know, there is no Rx price fixing in the US. If there is, then the cap is high because some controlled and non-controlled generics can be exorbitant.

No two pharmacies have the exact same price for generic painkillers. Its still somewhat market based.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Thanks for the information, so basically the government is it making difficult for prescription drugs to be reimbursed (which seems crazy to me) whilst at the same time insurance is pushing the market price up.

I used paracetamol as an example because there's little capitulation in terms of price fixing, it's cheap to produce, easy to store and readily available... I can't imagine pharmacies sell many because here pharmacies tend to offer premium prices (prescriptions are the big ticket items) generics are often 50% more in cost at the least.

All in all it seems things are not too different in the US, but the reimbursement of prescriptions covered by the government does seem barmy, I mean as I understand it prescriptions will be the bread and butter of a pharmacy.

I'd say forced price fixing of drugs could help but that would be a mess it it's own right. At the end of the day though I'd expect pharmacies, especially American ones to be doing well.

a reply to: RAY1990

I think the lasting solution would be massive cuts in regulation. Under the current model, the only prospering pharmacies are the big chain pharmacies that own their own PPOs (a type of third party payer). The rest of the big chains are either going under completely, or they're being bought out by PPO owning chains. Slowly we are being bottle necked towards a crypto-monopoly. Many companies owned by one insurer, ultimately controlled by government.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I don't know man, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree

I'm compelled to say regulations is what's needed, it just depends who is in charge and who enforces the regulations. How else are you going to stop a monopoly being created right before your eyes?

It sounds like your government is supporting this endeavour too.

Deregulation isn't going to stop that %5000 markup, it's not going to change the share you get as a pharmacist either. It doesn't change the patent holders or the people holding licenses.

Regulations could though. It shouldn't be such a dirty word. I can't sell alcohol to somebody clearly inebriated, sometimes regulating things is needed.

You can't give prescription drugs out willy nilly. Know what I mean?

I reckon we'd both agree that drug prices need to come down whilst corporate money (in this case mega drug corps) needs to be shared more fairly... I can't see deregulation achieving that, if anything it tends to make things worse.

I'm looking at the financial industry.