50% discount offered by drug dealers

[Stinky The Clown]

If they think this makes them look humane and caring ........ they're fucking crazy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2029607520090620

Deal reached to cut US Medicare drug costs -source
Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:01pm EDT

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - Drug manufacturers have agreed to offer some $80 billion in prescription drug discounts for Medicare recipients, an industry official said on Saturday, key savings as President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system.

The companies have agreed to a 50 percent discount for those elderly and disabled Americans in the Medicare health insurance program who face a gap in coverage after their drug costs reach a certain level, known as the "doughnut hole".

"This is a huge amount of money that our companies are putting up to try to help make healthcare reform possible," said an industry official familiar with the negotiations, declining further identification.

The 10-year deal was negotiated between the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America industry association and the Senate Finance Committee, which is one of several congressional panels drafting healthcare reform legislation.

>snip<

More at the link. Here is the synopsis: Blah blah blah blah we're SO good blah blah blah blah ........

[Journeyman]

1. Well, if the POSSIBILITY of reform has brought Big Pharma to make these concessions. . .

just imagine what the IMPLEMENTATION of a true reform plan will accomplish.

[sandnsea]

5. Only in the doughnut hole

This is nowhere near the kind of negotiation we need with Medicare and prescription drugs. This is pathetic.

[Stinky The Clown]

Yup. Just the donut hole

Stand-up guys, huh?

[Mojorabbit]

15. They will probably do like they did

with my MS med. Double the price so the copay is twice as much to make the loss up. I could do a 450/mo copay but not almost 900 a month. I went off the med.

[sandnsea]

16. That's awful

What kills me is if you don't have insurance, you can get your medication for free. But when you do have it, and are paying premiums, co-pays, deductibles - they stop helping you. That makes no sense at all. How can you not take your MS medication?

[MADem]

2. Ahahahahahaha!!!

Not to divert, but I read your headline and thought, damn, what, the guy selling meth, and heroin, or pot, or cocaine, or whatever, is having a FIFTY PERCENT OFF SALE?

What, for Father's Day????


Now, to get back to your topic, all that means is that they were OVERCHARGING by at least fifty percent!

[Stinky The Clown]

10. The headline was very much intentional

The overcharging part in your reply was certainly spot on.

[ColbertWatcher]

20. I thought the same thing too! n/t

[Flabbergasted]

21. I was thinking the recession was hitting the pushers. nt

[madmom]

3. If they can offer a 50% discount, and we all know they are still making

a profit, just how the hell much WAS the "mark up"?

[Tansy_Gold]

6. You forget -- they didn't say they wouldn't jack the prices UP

on all the rest of us.


They're not stupid, you know. Greedy as hell, but not stupid.


Tansy Gold. the uninsured

[Oregone]

11. All the more reason to extent Medicare/Medicaid to everyone.

Single-Payer now

[Oregone]

9. Ive read pills cost 8000% to 30000% more than cost of manufacturing

Such profits are justified as a reward for the intellectual achievement defined by the patent.

My opinion...socialize the pharma industry and double researchers' salaries (who actually work on the stuff to provide incentive). We don't need private descendants of robber barons scooping off the top to incentitize innovation.

A large part of R&D is for drugs that mimic existing drugs, such that they can be patented as something new. Highway robbery, eh?

[Ohio Joe]

4. See, we are so nice...

That now people who would not have been able to give us full price can give us half price.. We are soooo sweet... and we hope nothing else will change for the next ten years.

Makes me sick... DOH! I can't afford that!

[LooseWilly]

7. D'oh... I was hoping for specific street corners...

"Big guy on the corner of 12th and Willow is having a 50% off sale... this week only. (He's trying to raise money for his auntie's surgery...)"

Come to think of it... maybe the health care reform should hire these guys to move Big Pharma product...

[Autumn]

8. Gee wish I could afford the office fee

to see the doctor so he could write me out a prescription. Opps can't spell

[kdmorris]

12. What the hell?

Why not just remove the damned gap in coverage???

[Hawkeye-X]

13. Only if my drug dealer could give me a 50% discount

I'd be swimming in a bowl of kindbud!

[timeforpeace]

14. You're right, it's not much, and it won't cost them much either.

But they're getting big kudos, which means somebody swallowed it.

[SoCalDem]

17. Only fair, since they have been raising their prices by double digits

for YEARS..

And apparently, a lot of their "wonder drugs" are pretty darned dangerous to the guinea pigs who pay through the nose to buy them..:(

[PufPuf23]

18. Imagine a world where p*t is covered by a Universal

safety net that is legally a human right.

The world is full of cognitive dissonance.

What a day today, sorry uncomforatble to broadcast on the internet. lol

[Chisox08]

19. Damn I thought I was going to get some weed half off

On topic: We all know that the drug companies overcharge for their products and even with the 50% off they are stoll overcharging