Well the patient copay cards are a great way that drug manufacturer's (like Abbvie, Shire, Jansen, etc.) keep gaming the current USA system. Ordinarily, free-market says if the cost of the brandnamed humira is too much, we'd as customers just switch to something cheaper as an alternative BUT there's a copay card that makes it not sting so much. Our insurance tries to steer us into cheaper meds with copays at different levels based on cost. That said, I will continue using my copay cards
The other big factor is you/I do not know the total cost of the drug we get. Insurance pays most of it, and we do not care about
the whole cost.
There's many levels of rigged for profit layered within the USA healthcare system. A list price for a drug, negotiated prices by each health plan, you/I do not see the total price nor care, and we only care about
out-of-pocket costs. You/I cannot shop around for the best price on a colonoscopy (see negotiated prices different for every health plan) like you can for any other free-market product (a phone, tv, car, whatever). It's craziness and perpetuated due to apathy and those vested in the profits having an unfair grip on politicians. Most people do not use their health insurance much, it is only the chronically ill who do and we are a minority.
Post Edited (iPoop) : 1/8/2020 9:28:51 AM (GMT-7)