• jsavage58
    +3

    The prices americans pay for drugs subsidize the cheaper costs for the rest of the world... Our dollars offset the costs for the poor nations that all take the same meds. If we paid the same as other countries, the drug companies couldn't survive.

    • hereorthere
      +6

      I disagree. They charge US citizens more because they can, but with other countries they are forced to negotiate the price ), but even then they aren't going to sell their products at a loss and nobody expects them to. I can assure you that in Canada, for newer medications the costs are still sometimes beyond what an average family can afford, presumably because even at the lower negotiated price our provincial pharmacare receive, the drug companies need to charge a higher price due to actual costs.

    • RoMS
      +4

      This does not make any sense. Where would be the economic logic behind your "conspiracy" theory.

      Companies maximize the utility they can get out of a situation. Because the US healthcare market is tipped towards companies, due to liberalism and a lack of nationalized or sponsored insurance system, the pharma oligopoly enjoys an unchallenged market where the lack of competition and alternatives for customers gives them the opportunity to hike prices.

      The fact that other countries enjoy much lower prices has nothing to do with that.

      It is a plot of the damn Swiss perhaps? Hell two of the three biggest pharma companies in the world are swiss! That must be them! Right?