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"Why is insulin so expensive," I ask. Bunch of comments like, "Free markets! Make your own insulin!" What about drug patents, which are a government-granted monopoly, making it illegal to "make your own insulin"? Do people actually know what is and isn't a free market?https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1095592695454609408 …
Some will say it’s a coincidence that affordable insulin was made available after I began focusing on the issues. Others will know the truth.https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/03/cigna-reducing-insulin-costs-amid-consumer-pressure/3350442002/ …
Insulin has been commercially available for decades... The cost of production is very low... Zero research money is needs to be “recouped” as it is a well established drug. In a “free” market the cost should be very low. -Easy profits for pharma, with any price increases.
This leaves a false impression. Original insulin has been off patent protection. You could make and sell it if you wanted. But our insulin keeps getting improved so new patents. People want long acting synthetic insulin not stuff you need to inject all the time from pigs.
Of course, but researched opinions and facts don't sell and don't create outrage.
There are versions of insulin that patents no longer protect, but a company would have to see a profitable path to market (including FDA approval) to move forward. You can theoretically 'make your own insulin' if you follow an old, expired method and not a novel one.
People need to embrace the fact that innovation costs. You can have old unimproved but cheap or newer better but more expensive. We could easily afford to give everyone universal top of the line healthcare for a 1990. It’s better that we keep improving.
Cant even purchase at a lower price from an online Canadian pharmacy because its illegal!!!!
So it is with contacts lenses. But we buy them OL from Canada (have a valid Rx anyway so wth); huge savings. Guess the contact lens police force is a small squad. ?
How does any treatment become discovered without incentives? Who would work for free on a hundred things hoping one or two to work? How much $$ incentive is “fair” to all parties involved?? Who decides what gets researched without financial incentive? The market is only chance
There is a significant amount of research that comes from universities.
Yes there is. How are universities funded? Which universities get the most funding? How big are their endowments? In billions please.
well, they should be funded by tuitions.
where do you get money for tuition?? schools compete for your tuition....that's what im saying...the market decides... they also get money from grants...which is political and inefficient and promotes group think to gain funds.
If we are talking hypotheticals. No university should get public funding, no school should get public funding. There should be no such thing as public funding.
Any public funding should be for the public good. So public schools and colleges seem like a good thing. The problem comes when you look at who controls that funding. What are their incentives to maximize their investment? What is their accountability for their decisions?
Don’t forget that the politicization of the FDA in approval also impedes the free market.
For me, free markets are the goal. We'll never truly reach it but the fight brings prosperity
R&D is what makes medicine so expensive
often a decade bringing it to market. Billions...
We pay the high prices others don’t to recoup R&D
countries don’t.
Americans we are paying for the R&D while other countries benefit.
insulin specifically idk, but it’s insane $$$ 
This. But as much as we get stuck with the bill it is a better deal than no one developing new drugs.
This is the side of the argument that justifies high prices from the pharma industry perspective. It is a good point. Not sure if there is a way to spread cost fairly. I don’t have the answer to the high cost without sacrificing progress
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