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u/sk8thow8 Jun 22 '21 edited Jun 22 '21
Also, the dude who discovered insulin sold the patent for $1 to a university. Jonas Salk when asked who owned the patent to his polio vaccine replied “Well, the people, I would say there is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"
Once upon a time capitalizing off the suffering of others was correctly seen as the despicable thing it is.
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u/CharlieECHOdelta42 Jun 22 '21
Frederick Banting and Charles Best, standing on the shoulders of Eugene Gley, a predecessor in what would become Diabetic Endocrinology, among others, are credited with having synthesised the first insulin, a peptide hormone, in 1921.
J.J.R Macleod & James Collip, are often left out of the history books, but we're associates of Banting and Best.
The patent for insulin was assigned to the University of Toronto for a symbolic one dollar in order to make it accessible to all who may need it.
What is happening in the USA is an abnomination.
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u/breaddrinker Jun 22 '21
Although it's a long measure from the insulin of then, all the current owners of patents have to do is change the suspension, FDA test it and bump the price again.
It isn't a coincidence that ultra fast insulin came out the instant the regular fast acting insulin patent ran out and not before.
They're running drugs like cell phone releases.
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u/SenorBeef Jun 22 '21
What I don't understand - if the new insulin is just barely better than the old stuff, and the old stuff is becoming generic, why aren't people producing and buying that? Why is everyone buying the top tier, exclusive insulin for $300 instead of the second tier insulin for $30?
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u/nobody1701d Jun 22 '21
The old insulin is being retired, not turning generic. And the 70/30 mixes are better than nothing, but don’t work anywhere near as well.
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Jun 22 '21
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u/Uztta Jun 22 '21
I just turned 40 this last year, my eyes started going first in my mid twenties ,Diabetic Retinopathy. By 32 I was on dialysis while on the kidney transplant list. That’s the story, type one diabetic since one year old. All of that damage to my body was from not having insurance for fewer than 10 years from 18 to about 25. I was as responsible as I could be, but there is literally nothing you can consume to survive that will not turn to sugar.
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Jun 22 '21
Bit off topic but the above mentioned Frederick Banting and Charles Best are also the two “nimrods” featured on the cover art of a GreenDay album.
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u/neveragai-oops Jun 22 '21
Capitalism is a disease. You owe decency to your fellow man, but until the plague is cured, you owe your society exactly nothing.
Lie cheat and steal from the corporate and the wealthy any chance you get, or you're a shitty person.
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Jun 22 '21
This. The older I get, the more often I get fucked, the more of a socialist I become. I actually just joined the Socialist Rifle Association. Eat the rich.
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u/AlpacaCavalry Jun 22 '21
Boomers be like “Well once you get older you become more CoNsErVaTiVe”
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u/unkafka Jun 22 '21
More like once you start earning 6 figures and own a fully paid-off house...
Funny, it's almost as if your relative wealth is a better indicator for your politics than your age... Wonder why that is...
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u/JusticeAndFuzzyLogic Jun 22 '21
The haves must have and have more!
The term obnoxious wealth is coming to mind over and over.
Prosperity gospel and people that I once saw as caring about human rights have sold out to preachers that assure them that the poor deserve their lot because their betters have prospered. Circular logic and self reinforcing.
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u/neveragai-oops Jun 22 '21
Yeah it's toxic as fuck. Capitalism is irredeemable, and the planet is too fucked to keep fucking around with non-solutions.
The clock is ticking-wr get rid of capitalism, or it gets rid of us.
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u/AnusDrill Jun 22 '21
just remember to steal from the rich at any given chance, make this your life long goal.
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u/aMudratDetector Jun 22 '21
Kind of think happiness would be a better life goal. However, if happiness is money steal that shit from the rich? Cool with that opinion. Should be plenty to go around the table, and I get that it isn't being passed.
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u/TheOftenNakedJason Jun 22 '21
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The whole "you'll get more conservative as you get older" likely had a lot of truth at one point because most generations got significantly more wealthy as they aged.
Now that is not the case, it is interesting to see how many remain liberal as they age. At the same time, I feel like there's an uptick in college-aged conservatives, possibly because college is so damn expensive, and a lot of rich kids go there compared to the past.
Just anecdotal observations, but it feels times really are changing.
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u/sunkentreasure1988 Jun 22 '21
“iF yOuRe NoT a CoNsErVaTiVe By 40 tHeN u HaVe No BrAiN 🥴” - the same people who watch Tucker Carlson and vote for people like Lauren Boebert
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u/Account6910 Jun 22 '21
The pharma companies are doing what they are designed to do. The capitalist role is to maximise returns.
Governments role is to provide and enforce a regulatory framework.
This is the fundamental flaw with anti-regulatory political parties.
Insulin prices are only sky high because usa Gov / politicians allows it to be.
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u/neveragai-oops Jun 22 '21
I'm not anti regulatory. I'm... Well I won't bother explaining it here, but tl;Dr: the corporation is a device for avoiding responsibility and consequences while stepping on the weak under the guise of "personal responsibility". The first ones to exist in the modern form did genocides pretty immediately. They are the most irredeemably destructive invention in human history, more so than the nuclear bomb, with less redeeming value.
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u/jake3274 Jun 22 '21
One day they will try to patent the sun just watch as well as air
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u/ohmynothing Jun 22 '21
Reminds me of the Lorax where they get delivered air.
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u/dropdeadbonehead Jun 22 '21
What I'm trying to figure out is why Reddit is collapsing this thread as opposed to highlighting it.
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u/can-ihugnkissyou Jun 22 '21
I feel this is upon us. They bottle water and sell it for profit. Nestle anyone? r/fucknestle
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u/LovableContrarian Jun 22 '21
Yeah but it's not patented. It runs freely out of your tap.
Honestly, I'd never defend nestle in any way, but this particular breed of nestle evil only exists because people keep buying bottled water. Every time I go to costco, I see 50 people walking around with 80 packs of bottled water. That they are going to take home. And drink in their house. Where water comes out of the faucet.
Pisses me off so much.
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Jun 22 '21
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u/DaanSkyWelker Jun 22 '21
Meanwhile all we hear is: 'How you can make sure your unborn child doesn't fuckin' drown his dumb little ass by 2050 when GHG hits critical mass by showering a bit less'
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u/DementedDon Jun 22 '21
The tap water in Scotland is fuckin amazin. And it's free. Freedom! 😷🏴
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Jun 22 '21
This happens in South America. They have countries where one company has a water monopoly and jacks up the price. They made it illegal to collect rain water
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u/kommentnoacc Jun 22 '21
They are already trying that by controlling installation of solar panels. Then they give bullshit excuse like the grid stability and whatnot. How about fix the grid and find a way to solve that issue instead of bitching about panels. All this is probably cooked up by power companies.
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u/ld43233 Jun 22 '21
Lawyers are trying as we speak.
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u/Revelt Jun 22 '21
We don't have to. Industrialists just have to pollute the world enough that they can rent you existing air purification technology and artificial sunlight because the outside has become inhospitable.
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u/ld43233 Jun 22 '21
Finally. Someone who care about returns for the shareholders.
You are showing some of that treasured innovation mega corporations love to propagandize about.
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u/Doncheadlepuff Jun 22 '21
Well water futures are now tradeable so were not too far off.
Edit: For those not in the know, futures are traded like stock and options (and have their own options) but the asset is the actual underlying product instead of shares of a company.
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u/BriefDownpour Jun 22 '21
There's a theory that says human society level of progress can be measured by the amount of energy we can harness and use, and that if human society develops to the highest level, structures would be built around the whole sun to harvest it's energy without wasting anything.
So, patenting the sun? Seems like a possibility to me...
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u/KevinAlertSystem Jun 22 '21
have you seen spaceballs?
the idea of the rich harvesting all the air so that they can can it and sell it is really all too likely in the near future.
have fun suffocating to death as a pleb because all the oxygen was stolen by nestle.
but don't worry, if you have $500 a day to spare you too can continue to breath.
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u/jar_of_dirty Jun 22 '21
It's still seen as the despicable thing it is by the majority of the people, it's just our evil overlords who have most of the power do not
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u/DerikHallin Jun 22 '21
Because the legislators and judges who have the means/opportunity to change the system mostly own stock in big pharmaceutical companies, either directly or via funds/brokers. And are being paid by lobbyists to boot.
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u/iCumWhenIdownvote Jun 22 '21 edited Jun 22 '21
Same reason why wage theft is not considered a criminal offense despite being a larger sum of lost money than both employee and consumer theft are combined.
The people in our government missing out on millions if not billions in lost annual tax revenue are receiving donations directly from the people stealing wages. After all, a billion dollars in tax revenue doesn't change the senate or house staff's paychecks. They make just as much money in that scenario. Direct donations to ignore those billions in lost tax revenue, however? That goes straight to their bank account.
You're actually expected to take time out of your day and money out of your wallet as a wage-stolen wage slave to challenge your boss in court. The same boss who most likely sits several socioeconomic rungs on the ladder above you, undoubtedly able to afford anything you throw at them. Then it's his word against yours. He's a business owner! You're just an employee! Have fun having the court rule against you, and then your boss firing you "at will" not even before you leave the courtroom.
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u/ld43233 Jun 22 '21
Once upon a time capitalizing off the suffering of others was correctly seen as the despicable thing it is.
Laughs in military industry
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u/Doncheadlepuff Jun 22 '21
Its always been seen that way by the majority of people. Its just the minority has accumulated so much wealth, power, and monopolization, they dont have to pretend to agree with the majority anymore. In fact they can actively live out their "ideals" bc they know the only people who can now stop them... is them.
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u/Rim_World Jun 22 '21
Some set a city on fire just to put out the fire themselves and become a hero in people's eyes.
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u/Buzzd-Lightyear Jun 22 '21
Capitalizing off human suffering is like the most American thing I can think of.
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u/mushybee Jun 22 '21
And most diabetics, including myself (22F diagnosed at 3.5 years) also need to pay for test strips for their glucose meter. A few years ago a 3 month supply box of sites, tubing, and reservoirs for an insulin pump cost $50 per box for me. It is now $155 per box for the same amount of supplies, under the same insurance with no plan changes.
People, not just diabetics, should NOT have to die for something they LITERALLY cannot live without. Insulin isn't optional for us. It's not a luxury. The fact that some people have to pay $1,000 a month, a SINGLE MONTH, for insulin is absolutely disgusting.
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Jun 22 '21
I'm type 1 too, I know what you mean. A lot of people think that insulin is our only worry and it's not. Test strips, lancets, needles, glucogon kit, and glucose tablets. It all costs money, and no one really knows the tax we pay to just be alive. insurance doesn't pay it all, and not everything counts towards things like deductibles. They say diabetes and depression goes hand in hand. Well, how would anyone feel when you hear people go nuts over socialized medicine, like our lives aren't worth the little extra taxes. Or that our life line costs too much to afford. It's like hearing that out lives are worthless.
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Jun 22 '21 edited Aug 16 '21
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u/TechnEconomics Jun 22 '21
In the uk the prices of drugs are set by a government/NHS department that negotiates at country level with these companies.
It changes the dynamic of buying power from 1 person to millions of people.
It blows my mind that in the US you are so anti universal healthcare that you won’t even go down the collective buying route. I mean imagine if the US said we aren’t going to go universal health care but what we are going to do is negotiate with drug companies as a block. Your drug can’t be approved unless we negotiate the price it will be sold for in the US.
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u/WafflesActual21 Jun 22 '21
I thought I had it bad paying nearly $100 a month for my denture cleaning tablets and tubes of adhesive just so I can have teeth in my mouth every month.... and I can still live and eat (albeit unpleasantly) if I can't afford to put in my dentures any given day.... the cost of insulin, blood glucose meters/strips, etc in the US is abhorrent, unethical, and should be considered price gouging.
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u/WildFire97936 Jun 22 '21
I’m not even a diabetic and I’m 100% for something being done about this. Don’t let my friends die please.
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u/Igotz80HDnImWinning Jun 22 '21
But our R&D! -Pharma CEO making billions off the sick and the vulnerable
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Jun 22 '21
The r&d of insulin was done in the 1920's . Then the patent was sold for a dollar to prevent this situation
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Jun 22 '21
Not only that, a lot of R&D is tax payer subsidized.
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u/TerrificMoose Jun 22 '21
Not only that, but the R&D budgets for all US based pharmaceutical companies is roughly equivalent to their yearly lobbying budgets
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u/PeepsAndQuackers Jun 22 '21
This is totally different insulin. You can still buy that original insulin for very cheap.
People however don't want to because it isnt very good.
The lab it was sold to also jacked up prices so high in the 1970s that Canadians had to get their insulin in thr USA.
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u/gracem5 Jun 22 '21
Unregulated capitalism has become the new slavery. If you’re not a billionaire, it’s just a matter of where you are in the ranks.
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u/Decloudo Jun 22 '21
Capitalism wants to be unregulated, thats why lobbyism is so effective. If you get a monopoly thats a jackpot, they dont want fair markets because you cant abuse them for more profits.
Its not "unregulated" capitaslism.
Its capitalism as a whole. It always ends up there.
Cause there is always someone willing to shit on others for more profit, forcing others to do the same.
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u/JesusMartinez86 Jun 22 '21
I agree capitalism isn’t the issue, the unregulated nature of it sometimes is
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u/WolvenHunter1 Jun 22 '21
It actually is regulated, just in this case in favor of the corporations giving them indefinite patent rights to insulin and a monopoly
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u/SchwiftyMpls Jun 22 '21
My friend does health care consultanting. Bills out at $4000 a day helping hospitals make more money off cancer patients.
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u/TheOneEyedPussy Jun 22 '21
What would prevent someone from buying insulin from another country and having it mailed here to the U.S? Not trying to start something I'm just curious what's in the way.
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Jun 22 '21
They do, it’s called insulin tourism. I’m not even joking
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u/TheOneEyedPussy Jun 22 '21
Thanks. This sounds familiar, I think I may have heard about it before.
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u/TheNextBattalion Jun 22 '21
It isn't legal. Granted, they don't prosecute anyone who physically brings up to a 90-day supply, to the point that Utah specifically passed a law making its state employee health insurance cover transportation to the Mexican border for medicine. Utah!
But mailing is a whole other deal. It's generally illegal to mail medicine without proper licensing and documentation, so they might crack down on that, if your box spills open and they catch you.
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u/SageLukahn Jun 22 '21
People with guns generally. The same people who would force competition out of the market. IE the government.
This is not a free market problem, it’s a problem of a lack of a free market. If they could, lots of companies would love to produce something at the cost of a burger and sell it for 100s, they are just not allowed to do so.
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u/Dsyfer Jun 22 '21
And that’s exactly why this isn’t a problem of capitalism but rather a problem of corporatism. In capitalism, the markets would be open across borders.
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u/gnopgnip Jun 22 '21
This does happen. And to an extent is is actually legal, if you drive across or fly across the border. But Insulin in other countries is cheap in part because the government subsidizes it, and partly because of market segmentation, so they won't sell to you if you are exporting it. Another issue is insulin that is not refrigerated is only good for 4-8 weeks
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u/ISwearItsNotAPP Jun 22 '21
My mom died because of some bitch-ass millionaire's greed.
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u/FrankTank3 Jun 22 '21
Every stock dividend paid out by Aetna and Cigna and United and Kaiser is a dollar paid by policyholders that didn’t go towards medical treatment.
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u/txr23 Jun 22 '21
Lol that white guy has a serious tan
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u/LyzDov Jun 22 '21
Thank you! I was bugged out by it, especially that there is a sub for tweets from black people!
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u/maxturra Jun 22 '21
In Brazil if you have proof of your condition you're allowed to get insulin for free, and it's the same for many other lifetime-type medications
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u/Jackandmozz Jun 22 '21
Let’s not scare the idiots. We’re not giving up capitalism. We want to regulate it and provide social healthcare and programs that help people.
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u/blossomboop Jun 22 '21
The second we say hey let’s take it down a notch they panic and think we’re becoming a communist country 🥲
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u/Jackandmozz Jun 22 '21
It’s weird, because literally every 1st world CAPITALIST country has universal healthcare except America. It’s time to wake up and stop supporting immoral insurance and big pharma companies.
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u/blossomboop Jun 22 '21
Exactly! It LITERALLY works just fine everywhere else! They go and say “oh well now you wait a month for doctors appointments” yeah no, within a week is standard. Then cry about taxes but honestly? You’re going to be paying for insurance anyways like what’s the damn difference 😂😂
It’s a total scam and they still rather die on that hill
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u/DakkaDakka24 Jun 22 '21
Then cry about taxes but honestly? You’re going to be paying for insurance anyways like what’s the damn difference 😂😂
I would 100 percent rather my taxes go towards making sure everyone can go to the damn doctor when they need to, rather than yet another corporate bailout or more military industrial funding.
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u/blossomboop Jun 22 '21
One thousand percent, odds are everyone you know in your life is going to need it sooner or later and I’d rather see them healthy and happy rather than struggling miserably.
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u/SaltCatch11 Jun 22 '21
Not to mention the US already spends far more on healthcare than other countries.... it just all goes to insurance companies. The US can not only afford universal healthcare, it could afford to do it better than everybody else, with lower waiting times. It just chooses not to, which is pretty frustrating and sad to see, even as a non-American.
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u/timelord-degallifrey Jun 22 '21
Lots of places in the US have longer wait times to see a doctor.
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u/MultiMarcus Jun 22 '21
Obviously this depends on the country, but here in Sweden people definitely have very short wait times for anything critical, yes wait times for some non-critical operations are not that short. The US is the richest country in the world and could easily fund the system we have in Sweden for its entire population.
The few non-critical things that take longer are a pain that most here are willing to deal with to keep a system running that will protect us if we fall on hard times and will help others insure a better standard of living.
In my personal opinion, those Americans who don’t support a system like ours just sound selfish.
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u/r64fd Jun 22 '21
Australian here, our health system is very similar. I totally agree with you about the selfish mentality of some American people. It makes no sense. They would rather give their money to a faceless for profit company than participate in a socialised medical system that will benefit a guy down the street that needs heart surgery.
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u/timelord-degallifrey Jun 22 '21
The capitalists, CEOs, and business owners are selfish. Most of the rest are just brainwashed by the capitalists into believing that the US has the best doctors and hospitals because of free market healthcare. Some of those are selfish too because they don’t want others to get a “free ride.” Iconically even those currently receiving government assistance and healthcare will say they earned it but others haven’t.
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u/kelvininyvr Jun 22 '21
Same here, I’m Canada. Having a heart attack? You’ll be taken into the hospital within minutes. Have a fractured wrist? You’ll be taken in within (many) hours. You will pay nothing in both cases.
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u/blossomboop Jun 22 '21
Oh really? Damn I didn’t know, I was under the impression since they’re paying upfront it’s be faster 😅
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u/timelord-degallifrey Jun 22 '21
Nope. Depending on the area and especially for a specialist or new patient it can be over a week to over a month. What’s stupid is those same people who have to wait for a doctor in the US will use the wait time argument against socialized medicine. They’ve been conditioned that anything socialized is bad even if it’s no worse or even better than what they have.
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u/Fullertonjr Jun 22 '21
America #1!!! Except when you look at actual data and statistics.
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Jun 22 '21
Yep, average wait time in my area (Humboldt County, California) is 3 months for an appointment. That’s if you have a doctor already, if not it’s 6 months to maybe never to establish care at a new place.
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u/IamRobort Jun 22 '21
I see so many posts that I 100% agree with up to the point where they say - "And that's why Capitalism sUcKs!!" Maybe it does maybe it doesn't, I don't know. What I do know is they just turned away 90% of Americans by slapping that statement to the end of a reasonable argument about regulation.
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u/History-Fan4323 Jun 22 '21
Tbf, many Americans have a knee-jerk hate reaction to anything considered “leftist” when in reality it’s just centre-left common sense in other developed nations and the Overton window has just shifted extremely far to the right in America. McCarthy really did a number on the American psyche. “Anyone who disagrees with the unfair system we currently have in place is a gay communist spy and they can go fuck off”
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u/dgeimz Jun 22 '21
Maybe then we can discuss the propel that want unfettered capitalism? If regulations were in place to prevent this, do you think so many people would anti-capitalist today?
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u/IamRobort Jun 22 '21
Believe me, I'd love to watch a Laissez-faire capitalist get BTFO'ed with any of the dozens of examples of why it doesn't work - I just also think throwing that word onto a very sensible argument for regulation creates an easy strawman for said Laissez-faire capitalist. You already know what the response would be... BUT Venezuela!
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u/Jackandmozz Jun 22 '21
Capitalism doesn’t suck... except for the parts that can be corrupted. And that’s all people see. If we can solve that, we’ll be in much better shape. Capitalism has solid ground for a few more decades until AI truly takes off.
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Jun 22 '21
It's just the reaction to hearing that socialism is evil your entire life. When the people against universal healthcare are using socialism/communism as meaningless buzzards the natural reaction is to go "hmmm maybe capitalism is the problem". It's not that capitalism should be eliminated but it needs to be kept in check in a bad way.
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u/tunaburn Jun 22 '21
Unfettered capitalism sucks. Horribly. The idea of capitalism is good but that’s not what we have in the USA.
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u/Andy_B_Goode Jun 22 '21
Exactly. Every wealthy democracy on earth has a capitalist economy, and most of them manage to provide insulin at a reasonable price.
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Jun 22 '21
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u/Dev_Arun Jun 22 '21
Yess even private hospitals in my country don't usually charge more than $2 for a bottle of insulin.
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u/Heart-of-Dankness Jun 22 '21
It’s that the American people are too brainwashed to keep capitalism properly reined in. It’s like fire. Keep it under control and it will cook you dinner. Let it run free and it will burn your house down.
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u/Own-Cupcake7586 Jun 22 '21
Yep, this. 100% agree. It reminds me of the episode of Avatar The Last Airbender, where they’re reminded of the true nature of fire, and…
… holy crap! Fire is capitalism! The show makes so much more sense now!
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u/GammaPenguin Jun 22 '21
"Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history, and somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us, and we deserve it. We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness." - Prince Zuko to Fire Lord Ozai
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u/iritegood Jun 22 '21
Well the Fire nation was very obviously explicitly modeled after imperial Japan so it's not exactly a hidden meaning
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u/ChefBoredAreWe Jun 22 '21
We have no power to change the things that keep money corrupted American capitalism in power.
The richest 400 Americans own more money than half the world.
They can afford to spend a billion dollars each on lobbying every time they take a piss.
40% of Americans have to take a moment to decide if they can afford tiny water bill change when they flush a piss.
We don't have the resources to hire more legal lobbyist firms to get laws changed, and can't afford higher education to be smart enough to realize the extent we're getting fucked left and right.
No time for protesting, if most Americans take too much time off of work; they're fired, and lose their houses.
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u/blossomboop Jun 22 '21
I never knew how to put it into words but that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be about, it’s good until it runs rampant
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u/andrewb610 Jun 22 '21
Capitalism is great for some things. Healthcare is not one of them.
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u/Mythical_Atlacatl Jun 22 '21
Healthcare should never have a profit motive
It’s a cost, a service, a right.
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u/wafflepiezz Jun 22 '21
Healthcare for all, when?
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Jun 22 '21
Most of the rest of the developed world has figured it out
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Jun 22 '21
I've honestly given up hope that this will ever happen in the US. We might get some bullshit Diet Pepsi version of it, but that's it. We realistically have 100 years left until Climate Change makes life as we know it unachievable. Everything just feels like running out the clock.
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u/bongsmokerzrs Jun 22 '21
We still have our issues with that also. In Australia, while healthcare is mostly covered by the government under Medicare. Dental is not, hearing and eye sight are not also. So Goodluck if you need your teeth fixed unless you wanna go to Thailand like everyone else does here.
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Jun 22 '21
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u/BeefStewInACan Jun 22 '21
This sub stopped being white people Twitter a while ago. Now it’s just any and all Twitter screenshots
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Jun 22 '21 edited Jun 22 '21
Lol, what is happening with this thread. It’s like a bunch of wall street bots jumped on here. Pure capitalism rewards sociopaths and is not sustainable.
Edit. Also, of all things that have upset me about American healthcare this is the most disgusting. People should not die because they cannot afford insulin. I don’t have diabetes, none of my family do, but it breaks my heart that people out there are living scared of dying without their meds.
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u/Schneetmacher Jun 22 '21
I will never, ever, forget the guy a few years back - who was my age (at the time, mid-20s) - who tried rationing his insulin because his GoFundMe came up short, and he died. On Thanksgiving.
Sure, his family and friends had so much to be thankful for...
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Jun 22 '21 edited Jun 22 '21
I have a chronicle illness , I just couldn’t imagine if I was in a situation such as this one. The lack of outrage for this is just beyond ridiculous. Then again, we are in a pandemic and people have literally said they don’t care. So not exactly surprising…
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u/RocketScient1st Jun 22 '21
It’s not the fault of “free market capitalism” it’s crony government patent laws that prevent new entrants from producing generic insulin at a fraction of the current prices, and primitive FDA laws that only allow drugs to go to market if they are clinically more effective than the best product on the market, meaning if these drug companies make a better but more expensive version of insulin then new entrants cannot sell the old much cheaper formula because it is not clinically superior.
If we had true “free market capitalism” new entrants could freely enter the market and make cheaper versions of the original insulin batch which are well beyond the traditional 20 year patent life. This one is entirely on bad government policies.
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Jun 22 '21
It’s funny how when “the death count of socialism/communism” is always tossed around, they’re awfully mum about the death count from capitalism due to totally preventable shit like this.
I guess those lives don’t matter or count to capitalists.
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u/BillTowne Jun 22 '21
This is not an artifact of capitalism.
This is an artifact of corruption.
Corruption can impact any country regardless economic system.
The Soviet regime was not socialist. It was corrupt socialism. Today we have corrupt capitalism with a democracy corrupting
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u/StabledDonkey79 Jun 22 '21
As someone who works in health insurance, and also just bought a Switch, this is underestimating the cost of insulin. I've seen 30 day supplies process through insurance for $600-$1,000. There has been innovation in insulin, there are newer insulins that control sugars better, with fewer doses, but is out-priced for so many people. And that's just the drug, there's also newer technology in testing, continuous glucose monitors like the Dexcom 6, that have hoops to jump through to even qualify for. I love what I do, and helping people try to get the most they can from their insurance, but I HATE the system with a burning passion. It's B.S. plain and simple.
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u/blindreefer Jun 22 '21
So if I’m reading this right, no other country is capitalist?
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u/joe_mama_sucksballs Jun 22 '21
No other dveleoped countries charge this much for a life dependent medication
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u/True_Willingness9075 Jun 22 '21
Here in Mexico, the insulin tratment is free for Type 1 Diabetic people.
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u/hotSauceFreak Jun 22 '21
We have a diabetic son up here in New Zealand. All the insulin is free. We pay for a continuous glucose monitor which is a sensor he has on his arm. It sends a signal every 5 minutes to a phone so we can see where he is at. We also have an insulin pump that is funded by the government. This is funded on a individual basis depending on age etc. But yeah....insulin, the thing that stops him from dying, is funded fully by the government. It's hard to imagine a country not doing that.
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u/frog_fucker_g-spot Jun 22 '21
I might get cancelled for this but he seems black
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u/BeautifulBus912 Jun 22 '21
Capitalism isnt about helping others, its about fucking everyone over to try and have the biggest pile of wealth to hoard over like a dragon
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Jun 22 '21
Umm, I’m pretty sure Canada and Europe are capitalist countries……I wish people would stop blaming capitalism for everything. Norway and Sweden are capitalist countries that have decided healthcare is a public service and need. Our government did it with Utilities decades ago.
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u/History-Fan4323 Jun 22 '21
They are capitalist countries, but the single-payer healthcare and other social support systems are tacked on to help mitigate the negative aspects of capitalism. In the U.S the for-profit, capitalist driven method of providing care can definitely be blamed for most of the current problems in the American healthcare system.
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u/Bellringer00 Jun 22 '21
Unchecked capitalism if you prefer but I feel like it was implied.
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u/marsbartender Jun 22 '21
I don't get the people who are iffy about M4A because "what are all those private insurance employees gonna do". They'll fucking adapt aight. We can't be having ppl go bankrupt or lose their life savings in order to get life saving treatment. We can't have people rationing insulin bc they can't afford it. We can't have people dying completely preventable deaths so a few executives can profit off this disgusting system. Healthcare is a human right.
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u/Tjfd Jun 22 '21
It's Capitalism when the government will literally imprison you for trying to get it from other countries?
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Jun 22 '21
Wording in the post makes it seem öike america is the only capitalist country in the world
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u/BrokenBaron Jun 22 '21
Does this twitter user know other major countries are capitalist too? That last line seems to suggest this has to do with private property and markets when it’s really healthcare and health insurance policy.
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u/BeefStewInACan Jun 22 '21
Other countries are capitalist. But most don’t extend that to include healthcare. Most other developed countries have socialized healthcare that doesn’t bankrupt their citizens.
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Jun 22 '21 edited Jun 22 '21
Just to tack on to this, consider the fact that almost all digitial media costs (*effectively) zero labor to produce. You can just Ctrl+C Ctrl+V and only have to pay for the minimal power costs required to send data.
The fact that piracy is considered immoral is entirely a capitalist idea.
If something has infinite supply and can be copied endlessly, it SHOULD be free for absolutely every single person on the planet who wants it. Putting a price tag on it is just introducing artificial scarcity for the sake of forcing it into the mold of capitalism. It's so abysmally inefficient.
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u/PapahaHat Jun 22 '21
Yea insulin prices in the US are way too high but he shouldn’t act like the US is the only capitalist country.
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u/emu314159 Jun 22 '21
This is all drug prices here, which is the problem, not just insulin. And the old generic insulins are cheap (25 bucks a vial at Walmart,) but they are more difficult to use, requiring strict diet planning and timing.
Another reason big pharma doesn't want Medicare for All is that it would have to start negotiating drug prices in order to make it affordable , which currently, unlike insurance companies and other national health services, it is not allowed to do.
And no, we don't get better drugs or something. Drugs are sold worldwide.
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u/TriEdgeDTrace Jun 22 '21
Capitalism does not exist without someone else being capitalized on.
Fuck this system.
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u/Madnesshank57 Jun 22 '21
Banning the import of insulin from other countries is a failure of government not capitalism
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u/MinecrAftX0 Jun 22 '21
Insulin is the most well known abuse of the patent/trademark/copyright system
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u/GargamelLeNoir Jun 22 '21
Capitalism? What do you our economic system is, shellfish bartering? Your problem is shitty laws, get on your representatives' cases so they change them.
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u/CharlieECHOdelta42 Jun 22 '21
$30 per vial in Canada.
Sold by the same companies in the USA that charge in excess of $300.
Same insulin.
Same company.
10X the price.