this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
228 points (96.0% liked)
Asklemmy
43761 readers
1164 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
1 in 8 lives in poverty (<20k for a 2 person household).
1 in 4 has less than 1k in savings.
1 in 2 has less money saved than last year.
1 in 2 is living paycheck to paycheck
But thanks to massive income inequality, the average American makes 59k a year.
Fun fact: America is arguably better if you are rich or with a high income, Europe is better if you have a lower income / are poor
This. If you are fortunate to have great employment (100k+, dual income preferred (so breaking 200+), depending on location), with good healthcare, your options are great, and you'll access a higher level of service than most of the world can get. Great schools, great doctors, great home/car/vacations.
If you don't have that raw income, and therefore don't have that support, america is a much much different place.
I'm fortunate enough to have gone from very low class to a much higher strata and I never get comfortable. I'm constantly surprised by shit that just happens...easily.
An example: by having good insurance, I have a very good dermatologist. I have psoriasis and use a biologic injectable to handle it completely. Once, my specialty pharmacy had some sort of shipping issue and I called my doc to check in. They said come by.
They handed me 6 doses FOR FREE, so 6 months of medication, like it was nothing. Each dose is thousands of dollars cash. I pay 25$ with my insurance. I assume a vendor rep dropped a ton off.
Point being, I know there are millions of folks on very expensive meds, who don't have a high quality doctor relationship, who could never access that perk I did. Literally paywalled customer service.
LOL, it's because it's not, simple as that.
It is, to the consumer. Obviously I'm not referring to the true manufacturing cost, that would be idiotic. What part of my comment lead you to believe I was referring to anyone who was able to subvert the customer model? Why would you even imply that given the very specific situation, and players I mentioned?
A plane ticket out of the scam country and back is a pathetic fraction of the "thousands dollars cash per dose" you invoked.
Are you questioning the price of drugs like humera or taltz? What are you taking about scam... It's still thousands in Mexico, last I read. Here's an article from a few years ago
https://senatedemocrats.wa.gov/keiser/2020/02/04/latest-allure-for-mexico-caymans-travelers-the-pharmacy/#:~:text=The%20cost%20for%20six%20pens,%245%2C820%20in%20Mexico%2C%20Ojeda%20said.
The point is that quality insurance is a serious privilege, especially in the frame of reference of folks living in America.
You're off topic and moving goalposts
Your above comment was wrong and you should edit it. It's misinformation
Off-topic? Goalposts? Misinformation?
Now that you've named specific drugs, it's awfully easy to show how US is just a scam: https://www.statista.com/statistics/312014/average-price-of-humira-by-country
The difference between US and the runner-up is worth not just two plane tickets, but a lavish vacation. Just accept it, you're being had and it never crossed your mind to do the reasonable thing.
You're assuming everyone has the time, passport, and flexibility to do this. You're also inventing a scenario not described in my original scenario. An average worker doesn't have the up front cash to take such a trip, cheap as you think it may be.
You're preparing a privileged solution, clearly outside the scope of my original scenario.
My source aligns with yours, there's no question it's cheaper elsewhere. But just assuming someone can fly to Europe for a drug that cost 1500 in Germany , monthly, for a drug that needs to be refrigerated is the goalpost move.
Lastly, the whole point is how in the US quality insurance IS a privilege, due to the fucked up system, but you were too primed to just call the US a scam to get it.
The point is us citizens, especially those without thousands in cash ready to book trips overseas, or those with quality insurance are at a disadvantage.
US citizens have the most powerful passport in the world and a cost of living that makes overseas travel profitable. There's no goalposts moving here. Paying a shitton of extortion money for a privilege of not paying the overblown price might be a decision to make might be a dexision they consciously make, but that's not my point. My point is, this medicine does not cost nearly as much, and the only reason >$1000 numbers are thrown around is that nobody in their sound mind pays them. If you're willing to embark on side-discussions, I'm willing to entertain you, just stop bringing up your movable goalposts.
Having rights of a US citizen is a privilege. Living in US while having rights of a US citizen is a privilege on top of a privilege. But one doesn't have to. That's absolutely a choice. Repeat after me. An Afghan person with nearly no rights and a cost of ticket to US exceeding their life-long salary doesn't move to US because it's a privilege. But for a US hobo, whose monthly expenses far exceeding a ticket to a sane country they're "magically" already allowed to enter anytime they want, staying in US is a choice. Don't even try to twist that into a privilege. Time and flexibility, my ass. US citizens spawn with a golden ticket and a knob to dial life difficulty to "easy". If they stay in US past their healthy young prime, that's on them.
Privileged bullshit. Not everyone has a passport, not everyone has vacation days to spare, or several thousand in cash to pull off the operation. Many in the US can hardly do anything but work
You are ignorant, and assume much. I'm done with you.
Whatever, you weren't listening anyway.
You brought other shit to the story I was explaining, so make your own thread with your own shit. I'm not obligated to start going on your wavelength, on a dead thread, after I've made a different point