Topic: Drugs in the USA

[motocyconomad]

Third world countries have better healthcare than this country; unless you have excellent insurance which most of cannot even begin to afford. My daughter recently had to have an abscess on her tonsil lanced. She was treated as an outpatient and was in for about 5 hours. The bill was for $10,000. Now they want to remove her tonsils, cost is $4,500. She is a British citizen and can fly return to London for $1,400. Including any train or taxi fares, and staying with family, she could save around $4,000. So I don't want to hear how "wonderful" American healthcare is, coz unless you are well off, you are screwed! I cannot think of a single civilized country in the world that sees nothing wrong with letting people suffer and die due to lack of money other than this one.

yup its sad here. you get better deals in mexcio than ol usa. sad.

[ShermanPain]

Regular pharmacy's here (British Columbia) are fairly cheap. Should be the same drugs too. We all just smoke pot here though so no one goes near a pharmacy 

[74cb750]

Rust,
you really think Canadian pharma s  carry non Canadian/Usa made drugs?
Is this something that is easily checked out?
DOes the doctor do it or you?

No the Online "Canadian" Pharmacies buy from offshore wholesalers. Some online "Canadian" Pharmacies are not even Canadian. They open a call center in the Country to take orders. Some are very  shady and have been shut down. Some have been flagged by Customs and the stuff is seized.

If you go to a regular pharmacy in Canada you will get the same pills you will get in the US.

Since you can drive across the Border, just go to their version of CVS and get it filled.

Yeah, that's what I'll do as there is a CVS 4 blocks from my brother's house in Chomedy,Montréal.

[74cb750]

Third world countries have better healthcare than this country; unless you have excellent insurance which most of cannot even begin to afford. My daughter recently had to have an abscess on her tonsil lanced. She was treated as an outpatient and was in for about 5 hours. The bill was for $10,000. Now they want to remove her tonsils, cost is $4,500. She is a British citizen and can fly return to London for $1,400. Including any train or taxi fares, and staying with family, she could save around $4,000. So I don't want to hear how "wonderful" American healthcare is, coz unless you are well off, you are screwed! I cannot think of a single civilized country in the world that sees nothing wrong with letting people suffer and die due to lack of money other than this one.

I could not have said it better.

[74cb750]

I want to thank everyone here for their thoughtful comments and help.
You all feel like a family to me.

Oh gohse, I'm starting to tear up.

Better go out and throw over the fence some hay the cow me.

peace,
michel

[70CB750]

Third world countries have better healthcare than this country; unless you have excellent insurance which most of cannot even begin to afford. My daughter recently had to have an abscess on her tonsil lanced. She was treated as an outpatient and was in for about 5 hours. The bill was for $10,000. Now they want to remove her tonsils, cost is $4,500. She is a British citizen and can fly return to London for $1,400. Including any train or taxi fares, and staying with family, she could save around $4,000. So I don't want to hear how "wonderful" American healthcare is, coz unless you are well off, you are screwed! I cannot think of a single civilized country in the world that sees nothing wrong with letting people suffer and die due to lack of money other than this one.

I could not have said it better.

It sucks man, and the tooted ohamacare will screw it up even more.

[JeffSTL]

Unfortunately, Obamacare will do little to make it better or worse. It really doesn't do much of anything. The problem lies in the B B B B Billions in profits that are being made from healthcare. All other civilized countries negotiate these costs so the companies just stick it to us dumb Americans. Until we get universal coverage like the rest of the world cost will continue to sky rocket and people who can't afford it will go bankrupt or die.

[Retro Rocket]

Third world countries have better healthcare than this country; unless you have excellent insurance which most of cannot even begin to afford. My daughter recently had to have an abscess on her tonsil lanced. She was treated as an outpatient and was in for about 5 hours. The bill was for $10,000. Now they want to remove her tonsils, cost is $4,500. She is a British citizen and can fly return to London for $1,400. Including any train or taxi fares, and staying with family, she could save around $4,000. So I don't want to hear how "wonderful" American healthcare is, coz unless you are well off, you are screwed! I cannot think of a single civilized country in the world that sees nothing wrong with letting people suffer and die due to lack of money other than this one.

I could not have said it better.

It sucks man, and the tooted ohamacare will screw it up even more.

I would love to see a detailed explanation of that comment....

Unfortunately, Obamacare will do little to make it better or worse. It really doesn't do much of anything. The problem lies in the B B B B Billions in profits that are being made from healthcare. All other civilized countries negotiate these costs so the companies just stick it to us dumb Americans. Until we get universal coverage like the rest of the world cost will continue to sky rocket and people who can't afford it will go bankrupt or die.

All he wants to do is make it better for everyone. not the privileged few, anyone that slags him for that should have a good hard look at the other sides policies, they want to make it worse. Your system is grossly selfish when viewed from out side the country, most of you won't know any better till you go somewhere where it already is FAR better {health}....  Our system isn't perfect but it makes yours look primitive and the bottom line is the only thing of importance, that needs to change sooner rather than later..... Your health system lacks compassion and common sense....

[JeffSTL]

Retro, it is viewed as selfishly gross by many of us  inside of this country. Most outside this country may not know that we do not have a "health care system".

My situation: I pay $800/month for health insurance for my family of three.Still, anytime one of us needs medical attention a bill will soon follow in the mail.  A recent example- my son got pneumonia and had a chest X-ray. This took about 20 minutes. No big deal right? $800 bill in the mail.

A real kick in the nuts here in th USofA.  Most hospitals (at least in my area) are operated by "churches" and are completely tax exempt.  That $800 chest X-ray was at St. John's Mercy a catholic hospital. They have about $4.4 billion in assets.

[Retro Rocket]

Yes Jeff, i'm actually well aware, and i think that sucks, typical of the church as well, they should drop "Mercy" from their name altogether....   By comparison, 1n May 1999 I had a liver Transplant, i was on the list for over a year and spent most of that year in Hospital, yep, a whole year, that included 2 stints in intensive care on life support, i was very ill, the entire cost for the Hospitalization and my transplant was NIL NADA Nothing, it didn't cost me a cent. My medication is also very expensive but with our Pharmaceutical benefit scheme it costs me $14 dollars a month, I also know that the USA, while having good transplantation numbers, suffers one of the highest rejection rates in the world, largely due to the cost of life saving Immunosuppressants which must be taken for the rest of your life. It really is a sad state of affairs..

[JeffSTL]

It's all a waste of time thinking about it. The people with all the money buy the rules that favor them. Money trumps all here in the land of the free.

[BobbyR]

It's all a waste of time thinking about it. The people with all the money buy the rules that favor them. Money trumps all here in the land of the free.

Jeff, you have one weapon they all fear. You have a vote and every Politician will have to bend to the people rather than big money. You have to vote according to your enlightened best interest, not TV ads and bought and sold radio hosts. They want you to think it is a waste of time so you don't vote.

[JeffSTL]

Oh I never miss my chance to vote Bobby.

[kmb69]

I am a really old fart and I can tell you from experience it didn't use to be this way. I can remember a $20 doctor's office visit including a shot in the butt of good old penicillin to get a bacteria. Insurance use to just be for catastrophic stuff - not a runny nose in the emergency room. Insurance companies and lawyers are to blame - well maybe Bush too. A couple of years back, my wife and I got put in a foursome on the golf course with a heart surgeon and his daughter. During the 18 holes, the conversation included his cost to do business. He said he had to pay over $500,000 per year for malpractice insurance. Wow! I was blown away but I think he was being straight. Even if the doctor and/or hospital wins a frivolous lawsuit, it cost them a small fortune to be found innocent. Unbelievable how many ambulance chasers clog up the courts in this country. 10-13 million non-citizens in the country getting FREE health care that I PAY FOR don't help either. Obamacare ain't gonna fix it either. The promised $2500 insurance premium REDUCTIONS are already INCREASED by nearly $3000 a year and it isn't even implemented until 2014. The Insurance companies are scumbags! And now we know how fair and equal we can expect the Internal Revenue Service to be policing the damn thing. Whether your are Dem or Rep or nothing, if they don't like your politics or your tats, they control the death sentence without a court. You think health care is expensive now, just wait until it's FREE!

RR, your transplant may not have cost you a cent, but rest assured, somebody or most likely multiple somebodies paid for it. Somebody or many somebodies paid for it in higher taxes or some kind of government "fees". Maybe free to you but not free.

Nothing is FREE! You might get a bad case of the clap for free, but getting rid of it or living with it will cost you something or kill you.

I need to quit working and stop paying taxes so I can get some FREE $&it! Probably never get back what I already paid in! But since it's for the children, I guess it's kool.

Thank you for tolerating my "blame them all" rant.

[Retro Rocket]

RR, your transplant may not have cost you a cent, but rest assured, somebody or most likely multiple somebodies paid for it. Somebody or many somebodies paid for it in higher taxes or some kind of government "fees". Maybe free to you but not free.

Your right, The whole country paid for it in taxes, we pay higher taxes but if thats what it takes to have a better health model then so be it. It still cost me nothing either up front or afterwards though, in America i would have died, simple as that. I wasn't bragging about it, it was just an example, wouldn't have happened like that in your country was my point. For a country that "thinks"  its the "leaders of the free world" it surely falls down in a lot of area's that are a worry to the rest of the world.

[BeSeeingYou]

Rust,
you really think Canadian pharma s  carry non Canadian/Usa made drugs?
Is this something that is easily checked out?
DOes the doctor do it or you?

The one we use gets meds from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Turkey.  You have to do the homework yourself as there are some scams  and shady dealers.  I will not provide any recommendations other than to say your best bet is to drive across and deal with a "brick and mortar store" since you are close and save yourself the trouble of dealing with the wrong player.  It's 300 miles one way for us so we use the online suppliers.

Healthcare insurance is regulated, or not, to a large degree by individual states.  I see comments about premiums going up by hundreds and thousands of dollars, blah, blah blah, and I wonder where they live, or whether they are just listening to wing nut radio for talking points.  My premiums have been stable going up in small amounts as I get older.  Health insurance by law here is non-profit and the state regulates the percentage (85%) of the  premium cost that is spent on actual healthcare.  The state subsidizes the cost for low income or folks who could not get it due to pre existing conditions.  Some of the Obama/Romney Care things we had long ago.  Got a problem with your healthcare premiums...it might  just be that your state sucks ass.  

 Drugs are a different matter and we all get screwed no matter where we live.

[JeffSTL]

Yes. My state does suck ass. Four more years until the kid graduates and then we are moving. The last 8 years my insurance has gone up about 20% each year. 21% just two weeks ago. I am 38yrs old and i am perfectly healthy. There are not non-profit insurance companies in Missouri. 

[70CB750]

The incoming health care is so good that senators want to be exempt from it. How about that for elitism?

[Bob Wessner]

Albeit an extreme case here's an example of the kind of financial tomfoolery that dogs healthcare delivery in the U.S.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/business/bayonne-medical-center-has-highest-us-billing-rates.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130518

[JeffSTL]

Yep Bob, it's all a joke. It's not about our health at all. It's just schemes by insurers and corporate hospitals to siphon money from us.

[JeffSTL]

The incoming health care is so good that senators want to be exempt from it. How about that for elitism?

There is not "incoming health care." Just some laws dealing with health care that don't change much. The soaring medical costs started before "obamacare" and will continue after.

[Bob Wessner]

Yep Bob, it's all a joke. It's not about our health at all. It's just schemes by insurers and corporate hospitals to siphon money from us.

And sadly we keep letting them do it. I retired from a large, non-profit health insurer after 35 years in management. Truly a complex nightmare.   

[demon78]

OK Retro Rocket's right somebody in his country pays for it, a lot of somebodies, same as my country when I fell on the ladder last year and cut my knee I had paramedics, volunteer fire fighters to get me to the hospital emergency and then a couple of doctors,anesthesiologist's,  X-ray techs to stitch up my leg and artery, blood transfusions 5-6 maybe, 5 days in the hospital physio in the hospital, home care and physio, medical supplies (bandages, antibiotics, antiseptics) and follow up from the home care system, so if that happened in the land of the "free" what would that have cost you guys, not to the penny, but ball park? I'm pissed, I had to pay for a leg brace that I used maybe 3-5 times  $ 75 dollars that's it and yes a lot of Canadians paid for my treatment but over the years  I've paid for others to bear children, get stitched up after a punch up, kids getting their legs/arms set when they were broken, a cop getting fixed after a crash so on and so on and they didn't have to pay, so we' re even. I suppose that you could always ask why your country provides a military and a monetary system, security system etc that everyone pays for but not a health care system, I've posted a lot of this before.
Gotta go.
Bill the demon.

[mark]

... ball park...

Five days and some stitches? $60,000 maybe $75.000 who cares it's only money.

we need all that military to keep us safe from the meanies out in the world and give the flag wavers something to cheer for.

in before the lock.

[70CB750]

Albeit an extreme case here's an example of the kind of financial tomfoolery that dogs healthcare delivery in the U.S.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/business/bayonne-medical-center-has-highest-us-billing-rates.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130518

CMS is very wasteful, I know I work with them

And now the apparetnly corrupted IRS will have a say in healthcare? Not good!

I lived in a system of government managed healthcare and it almost killed me!   I did stupid things in my life and what not and my closest call was due to doctor's negligance in government operated health care.