At $1000 a Pill, Hepatitis -C Drug, Sovaldi, Rattles Medicaid Programs

[Stuart G]

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/at-1000-a-pill-hepatitis-c-drug-sovaldi-rattles-medicaid-programs

(posted on Bernie Sanders web site)

by Bruce Jaspen
Forbes.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Medicaid health insurance programs for the poor are grappling with how to pay for the costly Hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi, which costs $1,000 a pill and is running up a huge tab for states already grappling with myriad health and general budgetary issues.

The costs are hitting Medicaid programs extraordinarily hard because the population of patients in need of Sovaldi tend to have low incomes and wouldn’t be able to afford it without the government insurance. Sovaldi, developed by Gilead Sciences (GILD), has been hailed for its effectiveness in treating Hepatitis C, a disease that effects more than 3 million people in the U.S.

“This is going to be a monumental problem for Medicaid and our plans,” Jeff Myers, president and chief executive officer of Medicaid Health Plans of America, a health industry trade group, said in an interview with Forbes.

By some estimates, Medicaid patients could account for up to 30 percent or more of the patients who are or will be taking Sovaldi. That could mean costs of $1 billion or more just this year, Medicaid plans say.

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. that's just despicable...

Big Pharma should be ashamed of itself.

[shenmue]

2. Indeed

[Stuart G]

3. It has no shame..no guilt, just greed..

[area51]

4. Nationalize

I think most of the R&D is already paid for by the taxpayer.

[peeweeherman]

5. Gilead & Sovaldi

If I were an insurance company with clients who had Hepatitis C, I would pay for them to take an extended treatment vacation in India or one of the other 90 countries. The plane flight, the hotels, the doctors -- it would be a pittance compared to the $1000/pill rate being charged to Americans.

I also have to imagine that the narco-traffickers and smugglers are seeing dollar bills floating before their eyes -- talk about a lot of profit in a little container! Buy the pills for $10 in India, sell them for $100 each in the US and you have massive profits and a large black market of consumers (the deductible alone will probably make this worthwhile even to those in need who have insurance).

In fact, as a taxpayer whose government has disavowed using its market power to create a fair market price for Americans, I hope that there is a successful black market that helps reduce the impact on Medicare and Medicaid. Otherwise every taxpayer helps subsidize Gilead's corporate profit.

Until pharmaceutical companies have moral ethics that outweigh their profit margins and are checked by the purchasing power of the US government as health insurer of the people, I am compelled to hope for the spread of these cures as rapidly as possible without regard to patent or trafficking laws. I want my tax dollars that are wasted on pharmaceutical execs profits invested in government-sponsored medical research instead!

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/business/international/maker-of-hepatitis-c-drug-strikes-deal-on-generics-for-poor-countries.html?_r=0

[gopiscrap]

6. Welcome to DU

[Skittles]

7. investigate why the health industry is allowed to rip off so freely

[Stuart G]

8. I agree completely with you. But....

How many in congress are going to do the investigation?..Perhaps some in the Senate, but will that be enough?
If we take back the House, maybe then. But that (taking back the House) will be very difficult to do.

[Skittles]

9. make it independent of the same people being financed by the industry