A reader writes:
Hopefully numbers like the price of the hep-C drug will remind us that when it comes to pharmaceuticals, the US is basically subsidizing the rest of the world (and I’m talking to you, countries with nationalized healthcare that negotiate much lower prices than the US). This is just foreign aid, in another guise, whether it goes to Sweden, France or Egypt. When we hear about the “efficiencies” and prices of other healthcare systems, let’s remember that part of the reason is coming right out of our pockets.
Another elaborates:
American citizens bear the costs (taxes, military, rule of law, patent system, education of scientists, etc.) of supporting the environment which makes possible the innovation these drug companies achieve. Then our reward for our collective largesse is that we as consumers get to pay more, by an order of magnitude, for the same drugs than consumers in other countries. How is that fair?
Another adds:
“For patients with a strain that is more difficult to treat, the regiment is 24 weeks. That comes in at $168,000.” Or $1,680 in Egypt – wouldn’t it be more cost effective for insurers to send US patients to “rehab” in Egypt? That price difference is enough that building a residential clinic from scratch, and flying all of the patients first class to Cairo, is likely to be more cost effective than treating them here. There is something economically perverse about that.
Update from a reader:
To the reader who suggested sending US patients to rehab in Egypt to take advantage of lower drug costs: It won’t work for the same reason we can’t all take advantage of lower costs of more run-of-the-mill drugs in Canada. It’s not as if Canada has a cornucopia drug supply. Canadian pharmacies buy the stuff from U.S. manufacturers. If the purchasing behavior of a large portion of the U.S. customer base migrated to another country, the drug companies would know, and they would adjust their pricing or their shipping policies.
Medical tourism can work for the individual when there is incentive for individuals to participate (ie, the cost is out of pocket. My daughter had excellent emergency dental work done while studying in Ghana, good enough and cheap enough that if I needed major work done on my mouth, I might consider a long vacation to Accra -because I don’t have dental insurance.) But it is problematic for an institution as large as an insurance company, and it certainly can’t work for a nation.
The Dish 