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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

Enter medicare part D.

Drug prices are not negotiated.

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ORIGINAL: Moonhead

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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

Enter medicare part D.

Drug prices are not negotiated.

No, they're not. In this case they're fixed by the evil interventionist Canadian government.

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ORIGINAL: Arpig

Lower drug prices are one of the innate advantages of the single-payer system....if you want to sell your drugs here this is what we will pay....take it or leave it.

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ORIGINAL: Arpig

It would with a single payer system, it puts the power in the hands of the payer rather than the seller. Under the present system where each insurance company negotiates its own prices there is no real incentive to hardnosed negotiations, the worst case scenario for the drug company is the people on that particular plan will either pay whatever the drug company wants or will do without, while for the insurance company the worst case scenario is they don't pay for that drug and thus make even more money...its rigged either way. With single payer the drug company sells for what the payer wants to pay or they don't sell period.

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ORIGINAL: Arpig

With single payer they wouldn't have any choice....if your options are sell for $X or don't sell at all the seller is the one over the barrel for a change.

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Only fool sticks to the practice that is not working well.

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ORIGINAL: Arpig

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Only fool sticks to the practice that is not working well.

Tell that to our American friends

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ORIGINAL: Arpig

For the last time...its not "free" health care, its a publicly funded single-payer health insurance system that is slightly different in each province. Every employed Canadian pays for his/her insurance through their taxes and/or a special means-based health levy (again depending on the province). And even though we manage to cover everybody and without copays or deductables for almost 100% of medical care we still pay less per capita than Americans do for their private health insurance.

In Ontario (whose system I am familiar with) it is paid for by a percentage of one's income tax and a special payroll tax paid by the employer. It isn't free, I pay for my coverage, I just pay a fuck of a lot less than you guys do. We have no pre-existing conditions, everybody is covered, and if you move to a new province you are covered there, regardless of any pre-existing conditions.

I do not have to get approval from anybody (no bureaucrats, governmental or insurance company enters into the decisions at any stage) for any procedure my doctor deems necessary, there is no rationing based on age or income, and nothing needs to be pre-approved by anybody.

I can buy supplemental insurance (often provided through one's employer) to cover those things not covered by the government plan (in Ontario that includes prescriptions and dental) However there is a prescription plan for low income people whereby each prescription only costs $2 (which many smaller private pharmacies waive) which is entirely means-based with no extra fees and covers all medically necessary drugs (not viagra/cialis or rogaine for example).

All this and still we manage to pay less per person than Americans pay for their health plans with their high deductables, complicated formularies that vary from company to company and from plan to plan within a given company, and byzantine paperwork and convoluted negotiations for hospitals. I'll take our "experiment" over yours anyday.

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ORIGINAL: Arpig

With single payer they wouldn't have any choice....if your options are sell for $X or don't sell at all the seller is the one over the barrel for a change.