[donocco]

As a pharmacist who owned his own small pharmacy I know something about drug prices. The increase in price is unbelelievable. There is no word in the english language to describe the situation. Words like "outrage", "sinful" etc do not do the situation justice. In 1987 the most expensive drug for chronic use was Mevacor (Lovostatin) and this was the first of many statin drugs. The price: about 95 dollars for 60 tablets. In those pre-insurance days this was outrageous. People payed for the drugs themselves. I dont know how many arguments I got into when people would accuse me of getting wealthy off their illness. My pharmacy was in Fontana, California, a small blue collar town and I knew the people pretty well. The relationship was very personal. Eventually I was able to convince them that the drug cost me more than I was charging them. People over 55 got a 5% discount. Not much but it helps.

How about today's costs. The drug Harvoni for Hepatitis C costs close to or more than 100,000 dollars for 84 tablets. Brand Donnatal, which was one of the cheapest drugs (costing say 20 dollars per hundred) now cost 800 dollars per hundred. You all know about the outrageous price of anti-cancer drugs.

For a long time I couldnt understand why th insurance companies put up with this. They are very powerful and they pay for the drugs. A course of Harvoni for hepatitis C is 100,000 dollars. Suppose CVS/Caremark, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Health Net etc said to Gilead. " We know each Harvoni tablet is worth less than a penny in ingredients. Yet we are paying you close to 2000 dollars for each tablet. Tell you what. From now on well pay you 20 dollars a tablet." What would and could Gilead, the drug company do? Absolutely nothing. Its a take it or leave it situation.
So why dont the insurance companies do this to save money which is so important them and their stockholders.

I dont know but Ill offer a suggestion. The high obscene drug prices benefit the insurance companies as much as the drug companies. On the surface this statement sounds like the ranting of a schizophrenic. But think about it. The obscene drug prices make everybody absolutely dependent on having health insurance. The insurance companies make much mnore money on their premiums (which are going up and up) than they lose paying for drugs. If they wanted to, the Insurance companies could force the drug companies to drastically lower tomorrow. They could have done that yesterday. Im sorry if this sounds to simplistic.

Paul