1345
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago

It's a pharmaceutical company. They're no saints, but it's disingenuous to compare them to people who take money and provide nothing but a rubber stamp.

[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 10 points 1 day ago

people who take money and provide nothing but a rubber stamp

They don't even do that. Their incentive is to deny coverage. They're not healthcare insurance companies, they're healthcare rationing companies. And we pay them.

[-] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 28 points 1 day ago

Did everyone forget about scumbag Martin Shkreli who raised medication prices for no reason other than he wanted more money?

"In September 2015, Shkreli was widely criticized when Turing obtained the manufacturing license for the antiparasitic drug Daraprim and raised its price to insurance companies from $13.50 to $750.00 (USD) per pill."

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Martin worked at Retrophin and Turing Pharmaceuticals but mostly he was a hedge fund manager.

Got nothing to do with Parker or Mangione.

[-] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 4 points 20 hours ago

It's called an example of behavior.

Its a very common thing that happens in human conversation.

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world -3 points 20 hours ago

Alright well in that case all non-alcoholics and painters are literally Hitler.

[-] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 3 points 20 hours ago

We both know the ultra wealthy have a well recorded history of disregarding ethics and human rights when it comes to obtaining more wealth.

I don't know why you decided you dislike my perspective so much, but I'm good. Have a nice day sir or madam.

[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Pfizer still got billions from the government and was allowed to patent Covid vaccines that we all fucking paid for.

Also their dick pills are covered by insurance while meds my wife needs to make it through perimenopause aren’t.

Pfuck them all. Drug companies are at least half the problem with US healthcare, look at what Perdue and the Sacklers did.

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world -1 points 23 hours ago

Pfizer being allowed to patent Covid vaccines was a failure to govern, you should never have expected anything less than that from any company but rather you should expect more from your government.

Their pills being covered or not has nothing to do with the manufacturer. The entity who covers treatment made the decision.

Let's make a hypothetical where all drug companies are as bad as Purdue, then we would have to get rid of them all. OH WAIT! Whats this? The Covid Vaccine never gets made? Nobody is working on the new H5N1 vaccine? Well, I guess we'll just have to watch half of us die or be permanently disabled, lol. Organized medicine can't be allowed, after all. /s

[-] booly@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

The providers (hospitals, clinics, labs, doctor practices), insurers/payers (whether for profit like United, nonprofit like most Blue Cross Blue Shields, or government like Medicare), and pharmaceutical/medical device companies fight each other the whole time to make the most money off of the patients/beneficiaries/taxpayers. Big Pharma runs up prices and persuades doctors to prescribe their treatments, while doctors themselves have a profit motive in running up unnecessary treatments, all while insurers try not to pay for stuff, necessary or not.

It's a broken system, but it's also worth pointing out that the scammers in each camp hate the other camps just as much as the public does. There are hospital execs and pharma execs basically cheering on the anger at insurers, who will turn around and rip off the same victims in a different way.

[-] orcrist@lemm.ee 2 points 23 hours ago

Your final point I think is out of focus. The scammers, which is to say most people at upper level positions in these companies, they just don't respect human life at all, and they'll take money wherever they can get it. It's not a matter of hating people. They don't respect people to begin with, so they have no need to hate them.

[-] booly@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago

The scammers, which is to say most people at upper level positions in these companies, they just don't respect human life at all, and they'll take money wherever they can get it.

I think a lot of the profiteers in this space believe their positions are important and improve health outcomes, and that what's good for the world is good for the company. Pfizer will tell their investors that inventing a life saving drug (e.g., a COVID vaccine) will be good for health, and that the shareholder therefore deserve to make a hefty profit from it.

Same with the hospital execs. They'll pat each other on the back about how much good their hospital does, and see the very expensive billing department as an important function in their war against insurers.

And actual scammers, who bill for services not actually rendered, order unnecessary procedures, and prescribe the drugs the pretty rep is pushing, tend not to think they're doing anything wrong or that they're not hurting people.

People in each of these groups are saying in hushed tones that the insurance companies had it coming, and kinda sorta cheering the death of the United guy with their caveats ("well I'm not saying murder is OK but I'm not shedding tears," etc.).

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago

Yes and thats because the solution isnt to put different people in charge of the companies. The solution is to Regulate.

The corruption is because we voters built the system to enable corruption. None of us are better than the executives or vice versa

[-] witten@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

You are right about human nature and the need to regulate, but us voters didn't build shit. Crony capitalism and regulatory capture built our healthcare "system."

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 0 points 21 hours ago

In 2010 there were 58 Democrats and they held a vote for Single Payer healthcare. Every Republican voted no. One Independent voted yes. It needed 60.

So what did voters do after that? Elect LESS DEMOCRATS EVERY ELECTION.

If that isn't choosing this system, I don't know what is.

this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
1345 points (99.3% liked)

News

23649 readers
2405 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS