[isostatic]

US health care expenses per head are on the order of 2-3 times every other country on the planet.

Wen you're that far out of alignment, something is seriously wrong.

The US could scrap Medicare and use the savings to fund European style healthcare for everyone. You still get the option to top up with private health care, which can be pricey - $150 a month for a family, but there's always a base line to fall back to.

[jfnixon]

You are correct, and there is something the US can do about high drug costs. We pass a law requiring Big Pharma to sell drugs in the US at the planet's lowest negotiated price. This will help shift R&D costs onto Europe, Canada, and Asia, because Big Pharma will of necessity spread that cost around.

[tzs]

> You are correct, and there is something the US can do about high drug costs. We pass a law requiring Big Pharma to sell drugs in the US at the planet's lowest negotiated price

So if a big drug company sells a drug very cheap in some poor third world country, they have to sell it for the same price in the US?

Wouldn't the most likely outcome of that be that they stop selling their drugs in poor countries?

[isostatic]

> Wouldn't the most likely outcome of that be that they stop selling their drugs in poor countries?

And the poor countries would just make knock-offs, and sell them to other poor countries. The US as a whole would lose out because much of the US economy is based on the dubious concept of 'intellectual property'

[tptacek]

Yes.

[jfnixon]

Why is a poor family in Appalachia less deserving of inexpensive drugs than a poor family in, say, Venezuela, or Somalia?

[chimeracoder]

> You are correct, and there is something the US can do about high drug costs. We pass a law requiring Big Pharma to sell drugs in the US at the planet's lowest negotiated price. This will help shift R&D costs onto Europe, Canada, and Asia, because Big Pharma will of necessity spread that cost around.

A way less intrusive way to ensure the same end result is to allow reimporting of prescription drugs.

There was a bill to do this last year, but unfortunately it was killed in the Senate.

[jfnixon]

How is this less intrusive? I'd just reimport the hell out of drugs from the cheapest country I could find.

[kevin_b_er]

Instead the US is planning on cutting Medicare to pay for tax breaks for the rich. It will only get worse.