Quiat on Claims : New York Disability Insurance Lawyer & Attorney : Michael Quiat : Uscher Quiat Uscher & Russo Law Firm : ERISA, Denied Claims
Published By
Michael Quiat of Uscher, Quiat, Uscher, & Russo P.C.
ERISA, Life, Health, Disability and LTC After 25 Years in the Claims Trenches
How About Paying Us Back?
Drug companies have been raising their prices in anticipation of a government health reform program which may try to rein in uncontrolled drug price rises the companies have grown used to pocketing over the years. So, what’s new?
As reported in the NY Times, the wholesale price of drugs has gone up about 9% in the last year while the Consumer Price Index fell by about 1.3% during the same period. The drug industry claims the prices have risen at this rate, a rate unprecedented for the last
15 years, for good and valid business reasons. Realists say the industry is preparing for health reform, one of the cornerstones of which is trying to curb drug spending.
Whichever it is, the consumer gets caught in the middle again. While the drug industry trumpets its agreement to cooperate in lowering the nation’s drug bill by $8 billion a year in support of national health reform, it has already increased the nation’s health bill by more than $8 billion even before the health legislation gets its legs under it.
The excuse they use is the old saw that they have to charge more to generate monies for research and development of new products. Drug manufacturers have been using this excuse for raising prices for decades although the real reason is to keep their shareholders happy.. But, nobody seems to give a darn about the end user, the person who desperately needs the drug to stay alive or functional. Whether or not these afflicted people can afford the price, they have to find some way to pay.
Speaking of new product research and development, how about the billions and billions taxpayers spend on basic research at universities which lead to the development of many of these drugs and medications? Why doesn’t the taxpayer get a cut of the profits just as shareholders do? Why does all of the good stuff (profits) go to the company owners, while the taxpayer whose funds started the research and development, gets zilch? ...
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