I live in the USA. I have psoriasis. I was taking Humira for a couple of years. Between what my insurance covered and the secondary insurance that was offered to me for FREE by the maker of Humira, my out-of-pocket expense was $5 a month. That's right, five bucks.

I've now been taken off Humira and put on Cosentyx, whose list price is about $3600 a month. I lost my job and no longer have insurance. My dermatologist reached out to the Novartis Foundation, who looked at my case, looked at my finances and approved me to receive the medication FOR FREE for a year. Now, if I land a new job that offers insurance, I need to let them know and they'll expect my insurance to help cover the cost. But until then, Big Pharma is giving this patient a solution that certainly works for me.

However there are far too many who do not experience your good fortune.

Most people in this country do have health insurance, so their prescriptions are covered at the same level or better than was I when I had insurance.

I no longer have insurance. If anyone should be in a position where they would be required to pay the list price for an expensive medication out of their own pocket, it's me. But because my doctor asked a few questions and reached out, I am getting a medication at no cost.

Pushing the info in that chart to support the idea that drugs are overpriced in the USA compared to the rest of the workd is disingenuous. It's not an apple-to-apples comparison. And it doesn't take into account the options and realities available in the USA, such as those I pointed out above.

"so their prescriptions are covered at the same level or better than was I when I had insurance...."

You can point towards objective (rather than your anecdotal) evidence to support this specific premise, yes? In fact, it seems as your entire premise is predicated wholly on your own experience, and you are merely extrapolating that onto the collective whole...

It paid 80% on name drugs like Humira. That meant I was responsible for 20% as a co-pay. That is a pretty standard level of co-pay on many, many health plans, and as UHC is THE biggest health insurance company in the country, I would say that counts as objective evidence, wouldn't you?

Looking at the list price of Humira, you'd think that meant my co-pay was around $600 a month. But it wasn't, because 1. Like all health insurance companies, UHC most likely NEGOTIATED the price of Humira down to around $1500 a month or less, which 2. lowered my co-pay to around $300 a month which 3. allowed the maker of Humira to offer me their secondary coverage which knocked down my actual cost to $5.

You're saying there are ways to get the expensive drugs without paying the full price

is meaningless, just as would be showing the list price for a new car.

As far as what's overpriced these days, that's just about everything.

drug companies need to keep their "list prices" up because government and commercial medical care plans always demand a deep discount.

My dermatologist submitted a charge fro $350 to remove pre-cancerous skin growths. Medicare approved $59.80

It bothers some.

Those prices reflect what the market values the drug at in each nation. You don't have to get defensive because the chart shows how greedy pill makers are in America.

Greed is not something new or modern btw.

The people getting defensive are those who feel the need to hop in and comment on my posts which do nothing more than add some real-world perspective to the "scary" drug pricing chart posted in the OP. That defensiveness includes tossing straw men into the argument, as I identified in my previous post.

And I thought it was Republicans who insisted on black-and-white views of the issues.

"Your money or your life" is no health care system a modern country should be a part of. The rest of the world has figured this out, why shouldn't we?

is disingenuous and misleading.

End of story.

When your deductible is $2500 a year and prescription bennies don't kick in until you meet it, you pay full price. Once its met, you pay a discount (at work ours are 10% and 20% once deductible is met).

Thats how they justify their pricing. Hundreds of people (or their insurance, or their employer) pick up the exhorbitant cost and they justify it by claiming "coupons" and "giveaways" while their executives are pocketing tens of millions in take home pay.

Glad it worked out for you.

When I was first on my UHC plan, I got them through CVS, where they cost me $15-30 each for a month's supply. Then I switched to buying them in bulk through UHC's Optum program, where a 90-day supply cost me $30-50.

Now that I don't have insurance, I shopped around: I've moved my prescriptions to Costco, where a 90-day supply of my medications costs me $10-33 out if pocket. The meds were costing me more under my UHC plan than the would have had I just opted to pay cash through Costco. That's on ME for not being smart enough to check out my options. But there are options out there.

The power company can't increase your rates by 500% overnight 'just because'. It's time to regulate pharma prices like utilities.

They are covered under the NHS and either get prescriptions for free or pay a nominal amount.

Everyone on a high deductible plan will pay those prices until they have spent more than their deductible on health care.

I have a high deductible bronze plan and my prescriptions get discounted by 90% at times when using a pharmacy on my insurers preferred list. And I have never used up my deductable.

Yes, people are just making up stories about their pharma costs, and the media is too gullible to figure out that its really all FREE!

nt

So Free trade for them.

We have a huge demand, drives up the market.

Tbat is why they keep the price so high and that is why we spend so much on medicare part d