I was just thinking about this whole Covid thing. From what I can see going on throughout America I guess the issues around the "big pharma" and the costs of drugs in our Country are no longer an issue. The government is spending billions of taxpayer dollars on vaccines, tests, and other Covid therapeutics to address the virus. Most of the same big pharma folks that provide our daily pill counts are putting billions of dollars in their pockets over this perceived disaster. First we needed two shots, then three, and now it looks like we may need to add this to the annual list of vaccinations we need to survive. The government has also been paying for the annual flu shots for the past many years. So, why are we all still paying for our daily drugs and medicines prescribed by our personal doctors?
Most of us have health insurance at work or medicare for seniors. There is usually a drug plan incorporated into the health insurances. Medicare recipients either have advantage plans or separate drug plans attached to their basic Medicare. All drug plans have some type of co-pay and/or deductible. As an example: in my personal case I have a RX plan through the AARP. It costs me $44 a month this year with a $480 annual deductible. Last year, I paid about $31 for the same coverage. In analyzing this issue, I find that I hardly reached the deductible amount before end of the year and never reached the amount of the annual costs for the coverage. Today, you can access a couple of prescription web-sites that can get you prices even better than your insurance with no deductibles. Bottomline is the health insurance companies appear to be cleaning up on RX supplements to your Medicare.
So, why are we still paying as much or in fact anything for our personal meds? If the government can spend trillions of dollars on Covid with billions going to big pharma, why are still paying billions a year for our normal meds? As I said earlier, every year the government pays for the annual flu shot. Now, they are paying for Covid vaccines, tests and therapeutics. Big pharma is getting richer and richer, but can't reduce prices for normal personal meds almost all Americans are taking. We owe a lot to the pharmaceutical companies for answering the edict of President Trump to create vaccines to fight the Covid virus. Obviously, there would have been many thousands more deaths with this virus if they hadn't responded and been successful. However, the "big pharma" issue still needs to be acknowledged and investigated to bring them back to reality. I have always said if you want to see why the government or individuals do something seemly wrong, follow the money. Greed will always cause good people to make bad decisions.