Are you destined to suffer if your wallet isn't big enough?

As a member of the human race who believes there is a reason and a place for everyone in the world and that our long-term goals should be focused on decreasing pain and suffering, I am having a hard time legitimizing the expense and usefulness of our healthcare system.

I openly admit, there has been some major advances toward curing/greatly improving the outcome of some diseases. There are however several key points that needs to be discussed.

1. How many diseases have been cured?
2. How many companies and CEO’s have become rich along the path to finding these treatments.
3. Can for profit companies remain in business if their medicines work too well?
4. How many people are being denied treatments on other diseases, so the high costs of the products of select companies can be passed back to the drug designers?
5. Should health care be a for-profit enterprise?

This article will search for clues to the answer to these questions.

Background information

Drug Patents

Let’s begin by looking at drug patents. usptto.gov provides the legal description of what can be patented:

In the language of the statute, any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word “process” is defined by law as a process, act, or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. The term “machine” used in the statute needs no explanation. The term “manufacture” refers to articles that are made and includes all manufactured articles. The term “composition of matter” relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds.

These classes of subject matter taken together include practically everything that is made by man and the processes for making the products.

The design and manufacture of drugs, whether over the counter or prescription fall into the exact same category as the design and manufacture of your computer, cell phone, refrigerator or car.

Drug patents allow companies to control their creations

Just like with your computer, cell phone, refrigerator or car, drug companies can use the patents to protect their investment. All of this is as it should be (to a certain point).

There is a darker side of this issue however. Drug patents basically assure a drug designer that no one can produce their product in generic form for 20 years. While on the surface, this too sounds like a good idea because it is a protection mechanism for the companies involved in drug research.

However, far too often it means most of the worlds population does not have access to the newer drugs for over 20 years. That is a long time to expect someone to wait to be healed, simply to protect someone’s paycheck.

Let’s look at the best-selling medication in history

Lipitor is the top drug of all times in terms of dollar of drug sales at over $130 Billion. Let’s put that amount into perspective.

There has not been a successful manned trip made to the moon since 1969, so it is hard to compute what the cost would be today. Estimates range from about $3 Billion at the low end, up to about $30 Billion on the high end. Those numbers are mind boggling to those of us simply trying to survive here on earth.

It is easy to see, a trip to the moon and back costs much less than what was spent on this single drug since its release in 1997 (only 21 years). In fact, we could make somewhere between 4 and 40 manned round trips to the moon and back for what was spent on this drug alone.

Considering there are roughly about 7000 prescriptions and over the counter drugs currently available in the world, even if they all averaged only 10% of what was spent on Lipitor alone, the cost would have been in the $91 Trillion range, during this time.

That means, in the past 21 years, approximately 108% of the entire worlds estimated GDP for 2018, was spent on drugs alone. In other words, we spent more on drugs in the past 21 years than the entire world will spend on food, clothing, housing, utilities, movies, schools, computers, games, houses etc., etc., for the entire year of 2018.

How many diseases have been cured during this time period?

The only honest answer to this question is NONE if you use the standard of measurement that a disease is not cured until no one has that disease.

There are 12 vaccinations that have been proven through years of testing to prevent a disease, but with all this money being spent, it seems we have been unable to afford to vaccinate thousands (millions or more?) of people who cannot afford the cost of the vaccination. In my opinion, it shows a level of greed that is criminal and paints the entire human race in a bad light.

Here is a list of the 12 diseases that could be cured with a tiny amount of money compared to the cost of Lipitor alone.

• Chicken Pox
• Diphtheria
• Invasive H. flu, or Hib disease
• Malaria
• Measles
• Pertussis – Whooping Cough
• Pneumococcal Disease
• Polio
• Tetanus
• Typhoid Fever
• Yellow Fever
• Smallpox

In my opinion, it shows a level of greed that is criminal and paints the entire human race in a bad light because we have allowed it to happen and are doing far too little to combat the problem.

How many companies and CEO’s have become rich along the path to finding these treatments

In 2015, the highest paid CEO from a Biotech firm was Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, the head of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals at over $47 million. Let’s put that number into perspective.

Minimum wage in New York in 2015 was $9 an hour. To earn $47 million at $9 an hour would require over 5.222 MILLION hours of work or an entire weeks’ worth of earnings for 130,555 people earning minimum wage.

I admit I am prejudiced where this company is concerned. They are the manufacturer of a medication called Eyelea. I received an injection of this medication almost every month for a little over 2 years at a cost of over $8000 per injection. For me, it not only did not work but caused debilitating pain for up to 4 days after every injection.

Almost half of American workers make less than $15 an hour. Even if we increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, how are people supposed to pay $8000 a month when they only make about $2500 a month before taxes?

What happens if they need this medication and don’t get? Without a different treatment that they probably cannot afford, the chance they will lose all vision is extremely high.

How would you feel if you are working but go blind because of greed?

Can for profit companies remain in business if their medicines work too well?

The reality is, there is no incentive for drug companies to cure disease. Curing a disease in many cases results in a company losing its major source of income.

A good example of this is with the hepatis C drugs. It was announced recently that a nonprofit organization is in trials for its own combination medication that is just as effective as those costing up to $84,000 per treatment round. Their medication however only costs $300 for the 12-week treatment course in Malaysia where it is being tested.

The financial world is all aflutter because once the drug has completed trials and is approved in more developed countries, chances are good it will effectively take over the market for hepatitis C treatment, resulting in a major loss of earnings for the extremely high-priced drugs.

While this may be the largest case to come to light, the simple fact that so many in the financial world are upset about it, proves that at some point in time, healing people and/or preventing disease ceased to be the goal. Profits without the bother of how many people must suffer is now the goal.

People come first. Period. End of story.

How many people are being denied treatments on other diseases, so the high costs can be passed back to the drug designers?

The only data I found on this number includes those with no insurance. As of 2016 there was a little over 27 million Americans with no insurance. Most are elderly and stated they simply could not afford the high costs.

There were no reports of the number of people who had insurance that is considered “underinsured”. In most of these cases, medications are not covered or the co-pay for medications is the entire discounted price the insurance company normally pays.

Since most people who have no insurance or are underinsured are that way because of cost, how can they afford to pay the entire part of the cost an insurance company would normally pay, when the insurance companies are refusing to cover it?

The very low cost insurance pushed by President Trump which allows younger people who admittedly are less apt to use the insurance, to purchase coverage that pays for very little and excludes many medications and procedures. While it may be better than nothing, it simply is not sufficient to cover many of the things that happen often to younger people.

Younger people are more apt to be in a car accident. My own accident proves a single accident can results in over $500,000 in medical bills. Rest assured, those who have purchased these policies will not be covered in cases as this. A single accident can far exceed the maximum coverage under these plans.

The incidence of cancer is growing faster in the younger population and there are many other diseases on the rise. The number of those under 40 year old finding themselves in debt they could never repay because of medical bills alone is growing rapidly.

” One-shot cures for diseases are not great for business—more specifically, they’re bad for long-term profits—Goldman Sachs analysts noted in an April 10 (2018) report for biotech clients, first reported by CNBC.” source:

Are the wealthy the only ones who deserve healthcare?

I have heard hundreds of healthcare horror stories from people. People who had their entire life’s savings wiped out through no fault of their own. I happen to be one of those people.

We did everything right. We paid cash for our home and were getting ready for my husband to retire and help me with my business when I was hit by a semi-truck while stopped at a red light. In just 3 years, our entire life’s savings was gone. Half a million dollars.

Then my lawyer made a major mistake. We ended up getting less than 1/6 of the cost of medical bills. It’s now 11 years later and I am still partially physically disabled and have lost ¾ of my eye sight. Not a lot of job opportunities around.

When my husband died in 2015, I used his Cobra benefits to keep the health insurance we had. At the end of the first year, the cost went up by 60%. At the end of the 2nd year, they decided they would no longer cover the only diabetes medication that still worked for me. That put my cost to over $1100 per month just to have insurance and purchase that one prescription. I could no longer continue to pay it.

I am in no man’s land. I am an un-person.

I happen to live in a republican state where the governor refused to accept the federal money to cover medical insurance for people in my age group. I am not here to debate whether that was a good or bad decision. I can only speak to the reality of what that decision means to people like me.

My husband supported me financially after the accident. I could have applied for disability after the accident, but we did not want to be a burden on society. Even though he passed away, because of that decision and being in that no-man’s land age group, I don’t qualify for any help.

The diabetes medication the insurance refused to cover, had been the only medication that worked since the accident. Diabetes is much harder to control when you cannot physically walk even 50 feet without some sort of support. The medication was a last choice because of the expense, but it was the only medication that worked.

The four months I took it, not only did my blood sugar normalize, but my retina had finally started to heal. Two of those months I was no longer legally blind in my left eye.

In the 4 months without the medication, my vision has deteriorated to the point I am again legally blind in that eye.

The debate continues while people suffer

I have been told countless times that the financial situation must be this way to ensure everyone has food, clothing, etc., etc. That simply is not true.

The current system works like an hour glass. Each grain of sand in the top is a person still capable of covering the necessities of life. Each grain of sand that falls to the bottom is yet another person or family who can no longer cover the necessities.

The closer you are to the bottle neck where the sand falls through, the higher your chance of falling through rises. Each cycle of the economic rollercoaster, force more people into the bottom of the hourglass. The sheer fact that earnings for most industries have not come close to increasing with the rate of inflation, proves that point. It proves only the select few are immune from ending up exactly where I am.

Talk is cheap unless you are the one suffering

If it makes you feel better, go ahead and hide behind the rhetoric tossed about by those in power and believe that the problem is people simply don’t want to work and they would rather sponge off the system.

Of course, there are some people that fit in that category. But there are many more who lived their lives working every day, saving every penny they could, only to suddenly find themselves out of work and their life savings going into the pockets of the greedy.

The government’s own figures prove the problem is not with people receiving assistance

source Note: Numbers are shown in Billions of dollars. Figures are for 2016. Total US GDP for this time was $32084.9 Billion, in other words, over $32 Trillion. Healthcare was approximate 14% of the GDP for 2016. The chart above shows social health care assistance was only about 1/12 of that 14% or 1.17% of the whole.

That 1.17% includes all types of social assistance. How much of that number is from people who are receiving social security and medicare or which they pay a portion to the cost just like anyone would pay for insurance through their jobs? Those numbers are not shown. Considering the number of baby boomers, I would imagine there is a large percentage of that number which falls into this category.

Should health care be for-proft?

We made a major mistake when we sat back and watched while the necessities of life became big business. The only reason for a medication to be priced out of the reach of everyone is greed. Our entire system is set up to ensure the most profit possible is made on every prescription filled.

Utilities, food and medical care should all be non-profit. Minimum wage should be able to cover the cost of these necessities. Non-necessities are fair game. Let the market rule prices.

To put this into more perspective, all the utilities in the US are only 5.89% of GDP compared to the 14% of healthcare. That means that the necessities of life (not including housing) are almost 20% of the GDP. The sheer fact that they are included in GDP is proof that profits are more important than people in our society.

One last question the people need to answer

The days of companies having to fund research and acquisitions by issuing additional stock are no longer mandatory. Crowd funding can provide the needed capital to ensure growth without the greed of those like Martin Shkreli, Mark Zuckerberg and so many others back through history.

We have so many new tools at our fingertips, why do we allow these things to go on? These things happen because we, the people, allow them to happen. We are so caught up in who is wearing what, does my butt look fat, can you believe what so and so said and all the garbage that keeps us occupied and keeps us thinking about no one other than ourselves, we have allowed this to happen.

Are you going to continue to be part of the problem or be part of the solution?

Sources:

arstechnica.com
benzinga.com
thestreet.com
healthimpactnews.com
huffingtonpost.com
patientworthy.com
bloomberg.com
thenation.com

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