Monday, May 11, 2009

WE Subsidize Drug Exports?

Mish Shedlock says:

***The US has problems with prescription drug costs (we subsidize the rest or the world), extraordinary high administrative costs, an incentive to over-prescribe drugs and tests for incentive reasons as described above and also for legal reasons (malpractice). Finally, the amount of healthcare expenses spent in the last year or so of people's lives (often against their will), is staggering.***

We do not really subsidize the rest of the world... we still make money charging less overseas that we charge in USA. M&Ms candy are cheap and plentiful and profitable in USA and China, and the price is the same. It could be for medicine too. The difference is in USA there are patents which allow businesses to charge monopoly prices.

You say it costs so much more to develop medicine than candy. Certainly much more is charged off to the process of making medicine than candy, but most of the costs are accounting fraud or featherbedding, something extremely common in USA big business. Just because expenses show up on the books does not mean they are legitimate or necessary.


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