Epipen CEO is Senators daughter that raised price from $100 to $600

[RolloTheGreat]

 We're still primarily private insured, and HMOs strongly encourage generics.

It's not quite a clear cut as that, a few different elements-

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/medi...or-workers

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/va-hosp...it-n101771

Combine Medicare, Medicaid, federal payroll and VA and we are looking at ~140 Million people who get their health care from the government.

So what we end up with is roughly half of the US populace is getting their health care under one set of criteria, where as those of us in the private sector have thousands of different sets. You and I could both have say, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and even pay the same premiums and have wildly different coverage. Maybe your plan is better than mine on say prescriptions, while mine may be better than yours on say ambulance services. Totally arbitrary but you get the point I am making. Looking at it from a straight business perspective, roughly half of all possible purchases are going to be one particular item while the other half are a hodge podge of various alternatives- if you own a pharmacy, which one are you going to keep on hand? These things have a shelf life, and inventory is sunk capital.

Another factor we have to look at is, in a general sense, mutual funds. If you have a fund that holds say $700 million in BlueCross/BlueShield, and they own $200 million in Mylan- from on overall bottom line perspective it is best to put pressure on them to only pay for the name brand, take that in conjunction with the US only paying for the same and you, in essence, dictate what everyone else must buy. This isn't precisely or necessarily an evil scheme hatched by mutual fund managers, just trying to illustrate how these things happen and to be fair, the fund managers *are* looking out for their customers best interests in such practices.

That brings us to another factor. Quick anecdote- my company swapped plans at the beginning of this year. We went to pick up a prescription for my kid and it was a $450 copay. It got interesting when I asked how much it was *without* insurance- $250. That isn't a joke(ended up being an error on the insurance companies part, I was refunded all but $10, my normal copay). So, I had to research this practice- turns out that large insurance companies buy into quantities of products not unlike the commodities market. They will negotiate and settle on a price for long term which gives them some level of financial stability, at a potential cost of reduced costs with market fluctuations. Mylan pulling a stunt like they are with Epipen could simply be them trying to leverage people into these sorts of long term commitments giving them a reasonable floor for revenue they can plan on.

So Ben, will you be joining me in Switzerland when the people here decide we're evil incarnate for wanting a good lifestyle?

Heh, you joke but where I live they have the 'Free State Project', pretty much a militia in the thousands that aren't far off from what Dave is talking about. Honestly, for the most part they seem to like me, they know exactly where I stand, they are a different branch of Libertarian thought than I am, but we are a *lot* closer then the mainstream for sure. Will anything ever come of them? Profoundly unlikely, at least in a revolutionary sense. These are people that have packed up from all over the country to move here and basically try to make sure that the voting block for traditional US values remains somewhere.

I did mention corporate greed and I did point out the undue influence of the Senatorial father....

Yes, but this 'attack' on the populace was done by the left wing for left wing purposes- this wasn't right wing nut job capitalists.

I appreciate generics–what I'm saying is that generics are going to be targeted for elimination by corporatism, and that this is a bad thing.

Their lawyers will try, but ultimately clearer heads will prevail. Push the pricing too far out of line for too long of a period of time and the regulatory powers that be will offer them up as a sacrificial lamb in a heartbeat to protect their positions. 

I get that the government is a big customer, but I doubt the profits on Mylan stock outweigh the cost of epipens. If there is one industry that likes to take our money and keep it more than pharma, it's insurance.

I've got to doubt their accountants are saying,"If we pay $600 per epipen pack, we'll make back $10/share on our stock and it will be worth it". I think you'd have to show me the insurance companies own controlling interest in Mylan for your theory to ring true to me. (or why my guesstimate math is wrong with epipen sales vs stock dividends or price change are offsetting, to me it would seem for insurance to benefit they'd have to be buying few epis but raking in a lot of dividends or profit on stock sale)

No joke on "I am outta here" if the masses ever start killing the rich. They'll run out of them quick as there aren't many, and start looking my way and saying, "You are not of noble poverty, off with your head!".

First and foremost, I enjoy life and don't want to be executed for the crime of doing what every freaking person in the country should have done, take advantage of our educational system and opportunity to become an actual taxpaying citizen benefitting the country.

Second, economic upheaval like that would turn this place second world at best. The money printing $1000 loaf of bread banana republic would be hot on the heels of the revolution. Think about it- the only people who would revolt are the ones who haven't figured out how to make a good living here with all the opportunities available. You think they have some genius plan to run an economy as complex as ours?

There are definitely problems with profiteering in some industries, but I don't think some "good ol' common sense" is going to solve our nation's main problem:

The loss of protected markets coupled with the offshoring of low skill jobs has created a vacuum of living wage jobs for guys without technical training and skills. The less hope the poor have for a decent life, the more unrest we have on several fronts.

Post revolution President Bubba can't fix that by decreeing "Minimum wage is now $40 an hour!".