Why Humira’s price keeps rising despite FDA approval of generic competition

Yeah well aware of the Humira situation. It took how many decades for a generic Mesalamine, 30-years? If I was dictator for a day, I would make all patents other than the original null/void and make it illegal for pharmaceuticals to pay-to-delay on generics. I would enforce strict price controls based on the world market, no reason we pay 400% more than the UK does.

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)

FYI - those copay cards are not available for anyone on Medicare. Sucks for us but there’s no such thing as a $5 copay. Usually those companies will let us apply to get the medication for free but that involves long applications and red tape with getting approved. And there’s no limit on out of pocket expense. Although after about $5k OOP the catastrophic tier of pricing kicks in so we would pay 5% after that.

FlowersGal said...
FYI - those copay cards are not available for anyone on Medicare. Sucks for us but there’s no such thing as a $5 copay. Usually those companies will let us apply to get the medication for free but that involves long applications and red tape with getting approved. And there’s no limit on out of pocket expense. Although after about $5k OOP the catastrophic tier of pricing kicks in so we would pay 5% after that.

That sounds like really horrible insurance. I hope it isn't like that when I get to that age. :/