Average list price for a unit of insulin:
$6.94 Australia
$7.52 UK
$9.08 France
$11.00 Germany
$12.00 Canada
$14.40 Japan
$98.70 United States
Years ago when I worked in biotech one of my co-workers complained to me that his teenage son had diabetes and the cost for insulin was outrageous. When he told me he was a Republican, I read him the riot act after I picked my jaw up from the floor. He has voted Democrat ever since!
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A hip replacement in the USA runs about $40,000, $13,500 in Mexico, and $5,500 in Poland. Efforts to lower the cost in the USA runs against some stiff competition. For one, the AMA will not allow competition from doctors licensed in other nations. Unlike the American working class where auto assemblers are expected to compete in the global economy with workers in Mexico, American physicians are protected by the government from free market forces. Where are Democrats on this? I have yet to hear one mention the “global economy” as they do so often when explaining the lo wages for the ordinary non-college educated citizens. There is also the costs of patented procedures and devices involved with hip replacement. Even our own Senator Warren came to the defense of medical device industry, keeping the cost of a hip replacement high for the working class but protecting the high paying jobs and CEO salaries of the industry that enjoys a friendly home in Massachusetts.
And then there is Senator Booker who received $223,350 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry and its employees in 2014. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the haul was the largest of any lawmaker, and among Democrats, almost twice the total of the lawmaker with the next-highest funding.
Sure, Republicans are “pukes”.. But let’s be sure to get our own house in order first.
Sorry, I’m done. Time to move on. đŸ™‚
Well, that’s sad. Sure, your argument is a slam dunk with anyone who is a registered Democrat. My experience in dealing with independents, who represent a majority of the voters in Massachusetts and the USA, is that such arguments fall on deaf ears when they hear that “both sides do it”. But if you think that Democrats can win elections statewide and nationally by simply preaching to the choir, well, that’s a recipe that yields victories for the likes of Scott Brown, Donald Trump, and the next Republican puke coming down the pike.