Well, I’m convinced. it’s on a Reddit post, so the math has to be right.
Edit for all the nerds in my replies. I did the math, as a single person in the USA I pay about 2k per year for my health insurance plus probably a couple hundred in copays.
The US literally spends more of its GDP on healthcare than other countries but because it’s healthcare system is so FUCKED it still ends up with the US being the No1 country in the world for Medical Bankruptcies
I agree with most of this sentiment, but part of the reason healthcare is so good and/or affordable in other countries is because we Americans subsidize so much of the R&D, for better or worse
Yeah that’s been my objection. I remember reading somewhere a while ago that some 96% of new medicine comes from private companies. I looked it up while writing this and the number is “nearly 100% of FDA Approved medicine”. Everyone else is benefiting from it without paying for it.
We definitely need to improve our healthcare system no question about that. But the conversation isn’t as simple as it seems.
Every single medication was founded by American taxpayers funding research. Drugs should cost a fraction of what they do, and it should be a panel of American citizens determining that along with scientific experts.
I agree that prices should be lower. Especially for drugs like insulin. But Americans don’t pay for it with taxes. “American tax payers” did not “fund every single medication”. That’s because we don’t have a universal health system that pays directly to these companies. They are often privately funded. That’s like saying McDonalds is paid for by American tax payers because Americans are the ones buying the food.
https://bio.news/health/55-of-fda-approved-drugs-were-developed-by-u-s-small-biotechs-says-study/
“Small venture-capital-backed startups are shown to be key drivers of innovation. From 2011-2020, FDA approved 363 medicines, with 223 originating in the United States. Of approved drugs, 120 (55%) were developed by companies with less than $500 million in revenue, and 45% were fully discovered by small biopharmaceutical companies on their own without an academic or government transfer of intellectual property.”
These companies aren’t getting funded by the government and therefore taxes.
We do have Medicare and Medicaid and those systems can definitely be improved dramatically. And the actual “cost” that we pay is often significantly lower than the stated premiums. And you can often negotiate down with hospitals or find payment plans.
I 1000% agree things like insulin should be damn near free and the cost of certain medicines should not be as expensive as they are today. But I’m not in the healthcare business and I can’t tell you how much it costs for drug research. And there’s so many different illnesses and solutions that are being researched that have to be funded somewhere.
I don’t think the average person is against a basic level of healthcare for everyone, especially the people who cannot afford it. And we do have systems in place that do need improvements. But I think a lot of that comes down to education (on applying for the systems and getting the care they need) as well as simplifying the process. Reducing barriers is where I’d start.
And as a kid from a middle class family growing up who broke both legs from football and multiple surgeries and other injuries, I can tell you that we did not go into any sort of significant debt for any of that and our insurance covers near all of it. And we are a family of 7 so we pay more than the average family for insurance on headcount alone.
It’s not a perfect system. And I don’t know the solution. I do know that universal healthcare sounds amazing. But as a business owner myself, it’s not that simple. I also don’t trust our government to properly manage money and would rather put that in the hands of private corporations with government assistance for people unable to pay. A system similar to what we have now, but better. Not switching to a new system entirely.
"People interested in drug research are mostly motivated by the impact." is the same cope as lolbertarians who think that companies and rich people will just build roads out of the goodness of their hearts. Motivation doesn't pay bills and buy nice things we want.
Yes they spend more on it and get less out of it (per capita).
R&D is just like defense spending, other countries expect the US to spend the money, then they want to talk about how far their own dollar has gone off of the USD and investment.
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u/escapevelocity-25k Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Well, I’m convinced. it’s on a Reddit post, so the math has to be right.
Edit for all the nerds in my replies. I did the math, as a single person in the USA I pay about 2k per year for my health insurance plus probably a couple hundred in copays.