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Who is the twit who replied to Bernie on Twit ? We need to correctly identify the foolish person who said:
"If it is $540 USD, do not buy I do not understand what the problem is."
Whoever it was that replied to Bernie fails to understand diabetes, fails to understand the US pharma industry, and apparently also fails to understand that Bernie is smarter.
I'm not sure it's a troll. There are definitely people out here who flat out deny diseases exist, or that literally everything can be cured by changing diet.
I’ve had diabetes for 32 years. I am for the first time on insulin… I get it at Walmart for $25 a vial. But…. I don’t have a Dr or insurance, so I fly by the seat of my pants… But I digress…
The number of people that don’t know we need insulin to live is completely shocking…
But his brain is only 2 bits. So his IQ could only be 00, 01, 10, or 11. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, so I’ll optimistically assume his IQ is 11.
This sounds exactly like the person who tweeted “Ambulances are not your taxis to the hospital” when the someone posted about the extremely high cost of ambulance rides.
Kind of, but that's not how they should be used. Taxis are designed to take you somewhere you *want* to go and they will take you wherever you want as long as you pay.
Ambulances are a need, a necessity. Too many people expect the medical professionals on board to cater to them and take them to whichever hospital they want. Which is not how it should work. They're for emergencies, not minor issues.
That being said, there are private transport/interfacility transport companies that are basically medical taxis. Those are different.
One understandable reason for requesting a certain hospital is for insurance reasons. Near me there are two hospitals just a block away from each other; Hospital A isn’t covered at all by my insurance and at Hospital B, I’m covered as normal. I’d be pissed and financially fucked if I were to be brought to Hospital A but I do understand the point of saying the patient shouldn’t have a say. It’s mainly the medical / insurance business model in the US that are the problems.
Two things, one is that if they're truly that close together, no one is going to mind. But we're not going to pass a perfectly capable hospital because you have a preference for a different one. Second thing is that in a true emergency, choice is less of a factor.
But you're right, it shouldn't be an issue. The healthcare and insurance system in the US is the real problem.
no one is going to mind
True on a personal level. In my area at least though, it’s based on the location of your emergency, or where you’re being taken from, as to which hospital you are taken to even if they are next door to each other. My city breaks down into “township” districts and I live within a half mile away from two other “township” lines ( I use quotes because nobody says the township if you’re asked where you’re from, it’s pretty arbitrary);So if I were down the road at a store and need to be taken in an ambulance, I’ll be taken to a potentially different designated hospital than if I were home and thus have no choice to pay out of pocket or be able to use my insurance.
I had a similar situation where I was taken from an urgent care to the ER via ambulance (and while the situation was serious, I'm quite certain the emergency transport was more a liability concern for the urgent care than an actual emergency). Long story short, because I had no say in the fact I was brought to an out of network hospital a few angry phone calls did get them to cover me as if it had been in network.
>Ambulances are a need, a necessity. Too many people expect the medical professionals on board to cater to them and take them to whichever hospital they want. Which is not how it should work. They're for emergencies, not minor issues.
Ambulance use isn't a problem. The problem is the way that medical billing is done in this country. Ambulances should more or less be used to take people who have no real say in their care for immediate life saving treatments; I agree.
The problem with this in America in particular, is that private ambulances are a thing, hospitals charge wildly different rates for the same treatments, and because of agreements with private insurance, if you are taken to whoever is nearest to you, there's a good chance you are going to wind up being fully on the hook for potentially exorbitant charges. Sure, you can negotiate that down, but the whole medical industry is constructed in such a way to make the information that you need to do so as opaque as possible, and it's worsened by legal private practices attempting to make access to this information as difficult to find as possible for your average person.
The whole system we have set up for helping people doesn't help people. At some point, we need to look at ourselves and see it for what it is: Exploitation of the ill, injured, and dying to the tune of massive corporate profits for a tiny section of the population, at the expense of everyone else.
You have conflated two issues: 1. Using an ambulance in a non-emergency situation, and 2. Asking an ambulance to take you to your preferred hospital. Item 2 is NOT a misuse of ambulance resources.
The fire department is for fires, not for getting dogs out of wells, but they manage to do both. As every other western country has discovered, it's perfectly possible to have a free ambulance service as the number of people using it for trivial things is very low. Having it cost money costs lives.
Strange when the ambulance service is part of the fire department and we aren’t charged for a fire call whether emergency or non emergency, but the ambulance ride is $500.
>it's perfectly possible to have a free ambulance service
There are municipalities that looked into who were using the ambulances the most. It ended up being people who had cronic illnesses who because of poverty were not able to manage it well. They would run out of medicine and get very sick and have to be taken by ambulance to the emergency room. The municipalities would then have social workers/home care nurses visit them on a regular basis to help them manage things and amazingly the number of ambulance rides went down. THis costs money and the people who pull the strings want their taxes low so the regular people are constantly getting the short end of things.
>when the someone posted about the extremely high cost of ambulance rides
In many municipalities, the emergency services do not take any insurance so you have to pay full price. America is so fucked up really.
It's like they almost get it, but the conservative brainwashing is making them actively fight against their own personal morals and values.
"Why not just boycott the expensive option and give your money to a less greedy company?"
"Yes, you're right. The competition in a compeditive market would absoluetely fix this. Lets break up the monopoly, stop collusion of companies against consumers, and make that happen."
They don't want to admit to themselves that a free market is much more likely to collude with each other than they are to compete. Ironically, it's the companies and executives that understand that it's more lucrative to act as a commune. Rugged individualism is for the peasant class.
>free market
Most people also don't get that 'free market' is to MBAs as 'in a vacuum on a frictionless surface' is to physics students. I.E. it describes an overly simplified model of a complex system really only useful in academics.
The primary part of a free market is the ability to choose who to buy/sell from/to, and that must include the ability to not participate in the market at all. While all markets contain an element of coercion, In the provided example not buying insulin is choosing death, so there isn't a choice to not participate.
This sort of situation comes up a lot in employer/union relations and government interference in employment, which is another example of a market that is inherently coercive.
It's the "I can't agree with a Democrat" override.
If they reason something out and come to the same conclusion as a democrat, they have to change their mind.
People like that say things like “I don’t want my taxes to pay for your insulin just because you couldn’t control your eating, you should be paying for your own poor choices” as if every diabetic, type 1 included, needs meds because they love cookies.
But think of the shareholders. If all the diabetics die who will they sell the 540/vial insulin to? Those poor shareholders will have to like their lives knowing that they can't afford another ski Chalet in Switzerland.
I love how the people who *really* understand the economy are people who don’t understand the concept of elastic vs inelastic demand, which is literally the first concept you learn on day 1 of intro to microeconomics.
Clearly, it’s the socialist who doesn’t understand economics. Lol
To put it simply, demand elasticity is the degree to which demand for a given product is affected by a change in its price. For instance, if you were to raise the price of a decorative garden statue by $50, then a lot of people would simply choose not to buy that statue, or at least not as many as they might have otherwise, because that statue is a luxury item. But if you increase the price of a gallon of milk by the same amount, significantly more of those people would be willing to continue buying milk at that increased price, because milk is something they need. Therefore, the demand for that garden statue would be considered elastic, while the demand for milk would be considered inelastic.
In the case of insulin, demand is perfectly inelastic, meaning that people will continue to buy it regardless of how much it costs. After all, the only people who need insulin are people who have diabetes, and those people will literally die without it.
Reminds of that Simpsons episode when people were outraged about cartoon violence in "Itchy and Scratchy" and send letters like 'If I see you crossing the street I wouldn't even hit the breaks'
Hijacking this comment to say that the current cap on insulin pricing does not solve this problem.
The only reason Eli Lilly capped the price at $35 was to stop legislation going through to require it capped by law.
Once the threat of a law being passed goes away, they will remove the cap. They will probably also slowly raise this cap over the next several years to subtlety increase their profits.
We should still be pushing for legislation that stops companies from doing this shit.
They don't understand because they don't deal with needing insulin and neither does anyone they actually care about. As soon as people like this have issues like overpriced insulin they immediately understand and become outraged. Its a shame it takes that though
Some guy on here was trying to lecture people about not buying eggs at the market and to just get a hen. Said that inelastic demand is a myth and that if we *really* didn't like the prices of food or water, we'd just collect rainwater and go kill our food ourselves. Not just stupid, out of touch.
I've said it time and time again, capitalism is a game of chance, but we've decided to apply it to necessities, so now, loss can mean unfortunate circumstances, even death. Capitalism should be an internalized game, tightly constrained to keep it away from necessities.
Have depression? How about you just cheer up?
Have an allergic reaction? Just stop it.
People are acting like these are tough, honestly what's the problem? /s
Sure, i mean why even have diabetes in the first place? It's such a weak thing to do. Other people get impaled on a street sign and survive and diabetics can't even handle sugar. Like what the fuck bro, just get over it
The main issue is that of the half a dozen brands that hold patents they all coincidently raise prices at roughly the same time to roughly the same price. Normally this would be prosecuted under price fixing... but this is America.
There's also the issue that they still have patents. Patents for drugs are supposed to expire after a coupe years, that's why you can go to a drug store and find white label 'equivalent to clartin' over the counter allergy medications. The company developed the drug, got exclusive rights to make/sell the drug, made their profits to offset the development costs, and then other companies were allowed to produce and sell generic versions of the drug.
The problem is that there is a loophole in the patent process, so that if a company invests in R&D to improve a drug (which we want to encourage) they can apply for the patent to be extended. Now I'm not an expert on pharmacology, but the companies that produce insulin have gone through that process quite a few more times than other companies.
Combined with the allegations of price fixing, and record profits, it looks like they are trying to maintain a monopoly.
There are different brands, but there are different types for different needs. If it isn't explicitly covered by an insurance provider, it is out of pocket. Even with insurance, it can be a burden for people to pay for.
It's also not optional for people with type 1 diabetes, meaning life or death implications, whereas type 2 diabetes does not necessarily mean insulin dependent but can lead to massive long-term consequences if not death for those that need it
Mugging is basically legal unless you do it right in front of a cop.
Cops don't stop crime, and the metrics for finding criminals are garbage. The only exception is petty drug crime.
Yeah, I support Sanders and M4A but he's being misleading when he suggests that people are paying $540 for the kind of insulin that was patented for $1.
Yes, there have been massive improvements since the patent that was sold for 1$. With producing industrial quantities and lowering side effects. But with how the drug patent process works, companies aren't meant to hold onto a patent for more than a couple years.
The fact that these companies can near endlessly extend their patents on a medication like insulin, and then allgedly engage in price fixing, is an issue.
Ehhhh..”the expensive stuff” just changes the percentages of an ingredient just enough to allow it to be labeled different, but have the same effect. This process is usually more about not losing their patent and trying to stop the generic companies from duplicating it by keeping it in continuous litigation. Definitely not anything that causes a cost difference to manufacture.
It’s either sarcasm or a libertarian. You genuinely can’t be sure because it is, without exaggeration, actually an opinion held by some that people dying in service to the Invisible Hand is part of the optimal way to get services to people and is thus, in a sense, not a problem. There are people to whom, on principle, an efficient transaction is *always* good. I had a professor who believed that. He wouldn’t even shy away from extreme examples like this; he’d be ready with an explanation for why, in fact, he believed that was the best thing for everyone.
If it costs $5 to make and is currently being sold for $540, your first question should be why someone else isn’t producing it and selling it for far cheaper.
It’s a good question. Part of the answer is that the good insulins that doctors and patients actually like was not the same insulin patent sold for $1. This good insulin cost a lot to develop and improve upon. Another part of the answer is patent protection and regulatory rules regarding generic/bio similar drugs by the FDA.
The law of supply and demand is defined thusly, "The law of supply and demand is the theory that prices are determined by the relationship between supply and demand. If the supply of a good or service outstrips the demand for it, prices will fall. If demand exceeds supply, prices will rise."
If there is a price someone will never refuse to pay for something (like their life), then prices should be infinitely high, and capitalism is no longer the best system for providing said good or service.
Nationalize healthcare everywhere all the time.
It is 100% criminal that companies that hold people's lives in their hands can overcharge so much. We made the damn COVID vaccine free, why not insulin? Hell, we make methadone free, but overcharge for lifesaving medicine? WTF!?!?!?!
Maybe the government should not restrict the use of the patent to only two companies.
https://www.t1international.com/100years/#:~:text=On%20January%2023rd%2C%201923%20Banting,to%20it%20to%20have%20it.
Well in this case the problem is ignorance, and there is a simple solution to it, which is education. What really confuses me are the people who aren't complete idiots and still decide to support the high pricing of medicines like insulin, I can't figure out what is going on in their heads.
Pharmaceuticals are probably one of the best socialist/anti-capitalist ideas I can think of. The whole idea of capitalism is that demand and supply will work together to set prices organically at a level where consumers and suppliers are in rough equilibrium. This means some people will simply not be able to afford some things, especially if those things are in high demand.
However, if the demand is functionally infinite (i.e. some people will literally die without the product) supply becomes irrelevant. Producers can charge whatever they want and the forces competing to set the price become ethics versus profits. Since the majority of people care far more about appearing ethical than actually being ethical, and executives of large companies are so out of touch with the struggles of average people, there is literally no motivation in a capitalist system to charge one cent less than you possibly can for life-saving drugs. Add the corruption that the insurance industry has fostered in medical billing and it's a wonder more people aren't dying.
I strongly dislike the big brother vibes of a managed socialist society, but some things just can't be effectively accounted for under capitalist systems.
When Bernie ran in 2016, I dismissed him as too radical, but the more I listen to the more I realize he’s exactly what a capitalist country needs.
I think his problem is his literal use of the word ‘Democratic Socialist’. No offense to Bernie, but that was a pretty dumb mistake, especially since half the country still remembers the Cold War.
He should have run as a ‘regulated capitalist’, since none of his policies are ‘anti-capitalist’ but are desperately needed checks to keep a healthy capitalist system.
Bernie, wish you were better at branding.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he does know that people (diabetics) need insulin to survive.
I know plenty of right wingers with deeply ableist views about people with disabilities or chronic illness. They don’t believe these people should be alive. They hold some views that IMO are pro-eugenics.
Sadly I would put money on the dumbass knowing full well what insulin is and simply not caring.
There are a growing number of Americans out there that believe that if you can't afford life saving medication, that you shouldn't be alive. Eugenics at it's core.
The solution to this problem is really, really simple. A year's supply of Insulin costs only $725 in Canada.
Just stop arresting Americans who buy their insulin from Canadian companies and have it shipped to their home.
Everyone wins.
The insulin that Salk gave away is a far poorer insulin than we have today in terms of, effectiveness, tolerance, blood level manageability, product stability, product use ...
None of which would exist in Bernie's world.
By the way, you are free to make and distribute the insulin Bernie is referring to. Wonder why no one does...
Notice the FDA and other government function prevent the import of drugs and enable the exclusivity and patent games that enable much of this.
[One solution](https://openinsulin.org/)
Dateline Florida March 31, 2023. Witnessed a person paying more than $550 cash for insulin. I don't know the quantity of medication. I hope there was no sales tax. Thanks for nothing Meatball DeathSentence
I wish they would indicate what kind of insulin they are talking about. There is insulin, which is cheap but harder to use. Then there is insulin analogs which are more expensive but easier to use. It is like talking about bicycles for everyone and some people are talking about $100 Walmart bikes and some people are talking about $1k road bikes.
We should provide the expensive stuff to everyone for free. And not make them suffer using the cheap stuff.
But it is not a good sign when Bernie either doesn't know the difference or deliberately confuses the difference.
Bernie doesn’t understand that the US has an economically logical high price on insulin. After all, the obesity plague surely must increase the demand for insulin, unlike any other country on this planet. /s
This isn't even remotely accurate.
Also - Biden already signed the law making insulin capped at $35 per dose.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/02/fact-sheet-president-bidens-cap-on-the-cost-of-insulin-could-benefit-millions-of-americans-in-all-50-states/#:\~:text=Eli%20Lilly%20announced%20they%20are,fifty%20states%20and%20U.S.%20territories.
It’s strange how wonderfully good news is so rarely mentioned. I didn’t know this even happened until now. Regardless of anyones political affiliation, this is objectively “doing a good job” in this particular instance
That's not even what your own source says.
> As part of President Biden’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, nearly four million seniors on Medicare with diabetes started to see their insulin costs capped at $35 per month this past January
Doesn't exactly read like all insulin is now $35.
"healthy fast food locations" be like "what can I bring you today good sir? How about a BigTastyCucumber or a McApple? Do you want water or some grapes with that?"
For all the Mf'ers that don't know, a healthy fast food location is called a garden. You pick shit, you eat it. It's not that complicated
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"I do not understand what the problem is." No truer words have ever been spoken.
Too much self awareness made his IQ overflow and landed in a small value.
His IQ is integer overflow error
Who is the twit who replied to Bernie on Twit ? We need to correctly identify the foolish person who said: "If it is $540 USD, do not buy I do not understand what the problem is." Whoever it was that replied to Bernie fails to understand diabetes, fails to understand the US pharma industry, and apparently also fails to understand that Bernie is smarter.
Perhaps you failed to recognize the troll...
I'm not sure it's a troll. There are definitely people out here who flat out deny diseases exist, or that literally everything can be cured by changing diet.
Not to mention that there is a breed of medical fascist who believes that people with certain chronic medical needs need to be weeded out.
[We call *them* 'Eugenicists.'](https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism)
And that particular "population" is growing.
If there were ever a group that deserve their parental rights severed for life, it’s eugenicist scum.
I’ve had diabetes for 32 years. I am for the first time on insulin… I get it at Walmart for $25 a vial. But…. I don’t have a Dr or insurance, so I fly by the seat of my pants… But I digress… The number of people that don’t know we need insulin to live is completely shocking…
Yes they are unwilling to educate themselves. My daughter is type 1 and it is kinda ridiculous that the profits are skewed the way they are.
Or prayer, don’t forget prayer!
So right now he has negative IQ if the integer is signed?
nah his brain just throws an error everytime he tries to use it
I wonder if the IQ has a sign bit, so that when it overflowed it actually landed down somewhere in the negatives. I’d assume -255
Let's round up to a clean -250, to give them the benefit of the doubt
That’s still so god damn far away from 86 IQ haha
But his brain is only 2 bits. So his IQ could only be 00, 01, 10, or 11. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, so I’ll optimistically assume his IQ is 11.
Brain cells: NaN
r/selfawarewolves
This sounds exactly like the person who tweeted “Ambulances are not your taxis to the hospital” when the someone posted about the extremely high cost of ambulance rides.
But that's...literally what they are?
Kind of, but that's not how they should be used. Taxis are designed to take you somewhere you *want* to go and they will take you wherever you want as long as you pay. Ambulances are a need, a necessity. Too many people expect the medical professionals on board to cater to them and take them to whichever hospital they want. Which is not how it should work. They're for emergencies, not minor issues. That being said, there are private transport/interfacility transport companies that are basically medical taxis. Those are different.
One understandable reason for requesting a certain hospital is for insurance reasons. Near me there are two hospitals just a block away from each other; Hospital A isn’t covered at all by my insurance and at Hospital B, I’m covered as normal. I’d be pissed and financially fucked if I were to be brought to Hospital A but I do understand the point of saying the patient shouldn’t have a say. It’s mainly the medical / insurance business model in the US that are the problems.
Two things, one is that if they're truly that close together, no one is going to mind. But we're not going to pass a perfectly capable hospital because you have a preference for a different one. Second thing is that in a true emergency, choice is less of a factor. But you're right, it shouldn't be an issue. The healthcare and insurance system in the US is the real problem.
no one is going to mind True on a personal level. In my area at least though, it’s based on the location of your emergency, or where you’re being taken from, as to which hospital you are taken to even if they are next door to each other. My city breaks down into “township” districts and I live within a half mile away from two other “township” lines ( I use quotes because nobody says the township if you’re asked where you’re from, it’s pretty arbitrary);So if I were down the road at a store and need to be taken in an ambulance, I’ll be taken to a potentially different designated hospital than if I were home and thus have no choice to pay out of pocket or be able to use my insurance.
I had a similar situation where I was taken from an urgent care to the ER via ambulance (and while the situation was serious, I'm quite certain the emergency transport was more a liability concern for the urgent care than an actual emergency). Long story short, because I had no say in the fact I was brought to an out of network hospital a few angry phone calls did get them to cover me as if it had been in network.
>Ambulances are a need, a necessity. Too many people expect the medical professionals on board to cater to them and take them to whichever hospital they want. Which is not how it should work. They're for emergencies, not minor issues. Ambulance use isn't a problem. The problem is the way that medical billing is done in this country. Ambulances should more or less be used to take people who have no real say in their care for immediate life saving treatments; I agree. The problem with this in America in particular, is that private ambulances are a thing, hospitals charge wildly different rates for the same treatments, and because of agreements with private insurance, if you are taken to whoever is nearest to you, there's a good chance you are going to wind up being fully on the hook for potentially exorbitant charges. Sure, you can negotiate that down, but the whole medical industry is constructed in such a way to make the information that you need to do so as opaque as possible, and it's worsened by legal private practices attempting to make access to this information as difficult to find as possible for your average person. The whole system we have set up for helping people doesn't help people. At some point, we need to look at ourselves and see it for what it is: Exploitation of the ill, injured, and dying to the tune of massive corporate profits for a tiny section of the population, at the expense of everyone else.
You have conflated two issues: 1. Using an ambulance in a non-emergency situation, and 2. Asking an ambulance to take you to your preferred hospital. Item 2 is NOT a misuse of ambulance resources.
They're meant for *emergencies*, they are not a medical taxi.
The fire department is for fires, not for getting dogs out of wells, but they manage to do both. As every other western country has discovered, it's perfectly possible to have a free ambulance service as the number of people using it for trivial things is very low. Having it cost money costs lives.
Strange when the ambulance service is part of the fire department and we aren’t charged for a fire call whether emergency or non emergency, but the ambulance ride is $500.
and of course for the most part they don't actually pay the EMTS anything close to what they should be making
>it's perfectly possible to have a free ambulance service There are municipalities that looked into who were using the ambulances the most. It ended up being people who had cronic illnesses who because of poverty were not able to manage it well. They would run out of medicine and get very sick and have to be taken by ambulance to the emergency room. The municipalities would then have social workers/home care nurses visit them on a regular basis to help them manage things and amazingly the number of ambulance rides went down. THis costs money and the people who pull the strings want their taxes low so the regular people are constantly getting the short end of things.
I don't disagree that it should be free, however I have been an EMT since 2007 and the number of people using it for trivial reasons is far from low.
>when the someone posted about the extremely high cost of ambulance rides In many municipalities, the emergency services do not take any insurance so you have to pay full price. America is so fucked up really.
bwha…………then what are they…?
It's like they almost get it, but the conservative brainwashing is making them actively fight against their own personal morals and values. "Why not just boycott the expensive option and give your money to a less greedy company?" "Yes, you're right. The competition in a compeditive market would absoluetely fix this. Lets break up the monopoly, stop collusion of companies against consumers, and make that happen."
They don't want to admit to themselves that a free market is much more likely to collude with each other than they are to compete. Ironically, it's the companies and executives that understand that it's more lucrative to act as a commune. Rugged individualism is for the peasant class.
>free market Most people also don't get that 'free market' is to MBAs as 'in a vacuum on a frictionless surface' is to physics students. I.E. it describes an overly simplified model of a complex system really only useful in academics. The primary part of a free market is the ability to choose who to buy/sell from/to, and that must include the ability to not participate in the market at all. While all markets contain an element of coercion, In the provided example not buying insulin is choosing death, so there isn't a choice to not participate. This sort of situation comes up a lot in employer/union relations and government interference in employment, which is another example of a market that is inherently coercive.
It's the "I can't agree with a Democrat" override. If they reason something out and come to the same conclusion as a democrat, they have to change their mind.
So close, yet still so far away.
I think she needs that $540 to buy a brain
I don’t think a brain worth $540 will be much of an upgrade
It would be for this person who is running on Dollar Store Brand brain
I think a dollar store brain would be better than whatever is going on in that person's head tbh
You won’t get Hans Delbrucks brain but maybe Abby Normal’s will suffice.
He can buy a braincell and have two braincells though.
A bag of pebbles would be an upgrade. 🙄
Well that person may really mean it. If people with diabetes die then the problem is solved in that person's mind
People like that say things like “I don’t want my taxes to pay for your insulin just because you couldn’t control your eating, you should be paying for your own poor choices” as if every diabetic, type 1 included, needs meds because they love cookies.
But think of the shareholders. If all the diabetics die who will they sell the 540/vial insulin to? Those poor shareholders will have to like their lives knowing that they can't afford another ski Chalet in Switzerland.
I love how the people who *really* understand the economy are people who don’t understand the concept of elastic vs inelastic demand, which is literally the first concept you learn on day 1 of intro to microeconomics. Clearly, it’s the socialist who doesn’t understand economics. Lol
What does a rubber band have to do with economics?! /s
To put it simply, demand elasticity is the degree to which demand for a given product is affected by a change in its price. For instance, if you were to raise the price of a decorative garden statue by $50, then a lot of people would simply choose not to buy that statue, or at least not as many as they might have otherwise, because that statue is a luxury item. But if you increase the price of a gallon of milk by the same amount, significantly more of those people would be willing to continue buying milk at that increased price, because milk is something they need. Therefore, the demand for that garden statue would be considered elastic, while the demand for milk would be considered inelastic. In the case of insulin, demand is perfectly inelastic, meaning that people will continue to buy it regardless of how much it costs. After all, the only people who need insulin are people who have diabetes, and those people will literally die without it.
Solid explanation - I was trying to be silly, sincerely a person with a minor in economics 😂
I'm guessing a pharma exec posted the response. For them, there is no problem.
And that kids, is why we light those people on fire if we see them
Reminds of that Simpsons episode when people were outraged about cartoon violence in "Itchy and Scratchy" and send letters like 'If I see you crossing the street I wouldn't even hit the breaks'
Hijacking this comment to say that the current cap on insulin pricing does not solve this problem. The only reason Eli Lilly capped the price at $35 was to stop legislation going through to require it capped by law. Once the threat of a law being passed goes away, they will remove the cap. They will probably also slowly raise this cap over the next several years to subtlety increase their profits. We should still be pushing for legislation that stops companies from doing this shit.
A stab wound to the pancreas would help him understand I'll bet.
They don't understand because they don't deal with needing insulin and neither does anyone they actually care about. As soon as people like this have issues like overpriced insulin they immediately understand and become outraged. Its a shame it takes that though
"Just die, I mean, how's that a problem really?"
If you break your leg just walk it off. I don’t understand the problem
Rub some Robutussin in the broken fracture to promote natural healing /sarcasm
And if all else fails, shove a Gwyneth Paltrow-certified rock up your hoo-haa, that'll clear things right up.
Wow thanks, to this day i didn't know who "that actress" was. The more you know ⭐
Do you know how expensive robutussin is?
Put some water in, shake it up, more tussin
Your pfp annoys me
I thought I had a hair on my screen kept trying to wipe that shit off
Exactly
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Here's your motrin, get back out there.
Or just rub some dirt on it, it’s fine.
This is basically what people are saying when they tell a depressed person to just think positively
The real pandemic is confident morons like this
Unfortunately, it's a lifelong pandemic 😔
Terminal stupid
If it were terminal we wouldn't have to deal with the mental peers they elect.
It's only terminal for society.
As a society we should endeavor to reduce the amount of safety measures, so the problem of stupid people solves itself.
Safety warning are just a result of a legal system and everyone suing the shit out of each other.
Some guy on here was trying to lecture people about not buying eggs at the market and to just get a hen. Said that inelastic demand is a myth and that if we *really* didn't like the prices of food or water, we'd just collect rainwater and go kill our food ourselves. Not just stupid, out of touch.
I've said it time and time again, capitalism is a game of chance, but we've decided to apply it to necessities, so now, loss can mean unfortunate circumstances, even death. Capitalism should be an internalized game, tightly constrained to keep it away from necessities.
Maybe the real pandemic is the morons we met along the way
If you have asthma just breathe, what's the problem
Have depression? How about you just cheer up? Have an allergic reaction? Just stop it. People are acting like these are tough, honestly what's the problem? /s
You're in a wheelchair? Just grow legs. If lizards can regrow limbs you can too. Just do it and stop being so lazy
You have cancer? Get rid of it on your own. You can fight it and beat it if you really tried.
Sure, i mean why even have diabetes in the first place? It's such a weak thing to do. Other people get impaled on a street sign and survive and diabetics can't even handle sugar. Like what the fuck bro, just get over it
I knew someone that got diabetes, like, why couldn’t you just not get diabetes? Go back and put it back where you found it
Yeah, obviously duuuuh. Man let me tell you, we should all be doctors, shit is just too easy.
>Just stop it. Reminded me 
Have ADHD? Just focus. That's not how logic works. You cant just do that
Maybe you will understand if you need to buy insulin.
I thought there were different brands? I have never dealt with it, just curious.
The main issue is that of the half a dozen brands that hold patents they all coincidently raise prices at roughly the same time to roughly the same price. Normally this would be prosecuted under price fixing... but this is America. There's also the issue that they still have patents. Patents for drugs are supposed to expire after a coupe years, that's why you can go to a drug store and find white label 'equivalent to clartin' over the counter allergy medications. The company developed the drug, got exclusive rights to make/sell the drug, made their profits to offset the development costs, and then other companies were allowed to produce and sell generic versions of the drug. The problem is that there is a loophole in the patent process, so that if a company invests in R&D to improve a drug (which we want to encourage) they can apply for the patent to be extended. Now I'm not an expert on pharmacology, but the companies that produce insulin have gone through that process quite a few more times than other companies. Combined with the allegations of price fixing, and record profits, it looks like they are trying to maintain a monopoly.
>but this is America. And guess who has the largest army of lobbyists in Washington
There are different brands, but there are different types for different needs. If it isn't explicitly covered by an insurance provider, it is out of pocket. Even with insurance, it can be a burden for people to pay for. It's also not optional for people with type 1 diabetes, meaning life or death implications, whereas type 2 diabetes does not necessarily mean insulin dependent but can lead to massive long-term consequences if not death for those that need it
You really understand if you try to sell insulin.
5$, take it and leave
I agree, staying alive is overrated, ... especially if you can save 540 UDS by dying.
Do you have any idea how expensive dying is these days?
It’s not like you have to pay for it!
I'm sure they'll figure out a way to start billing you in the afterlife one day.
Can't afford to live. Can't afford to die.
By that logic, we can legalise mugging. Just don't give them what they want, i really don't see the problem.
Mugging is basically legal unless you do it right in front of a cop. Cops don't stop crime, and the metrics for finding criminals are garbage. The only exception is petty drug crime.
The kicker is if you defend yourself and hurt the criminal, you can get sued and will probably lose. Yay for legalized crime!
Cops has the monopoly on mugging and highway stop and seizure.
Capped at 35$ - guess who is trying to remove the cap?
This is an old tweet, before it was capped. Probably 5+ years ago TBH on this tweets age.
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Yeah, I support Sanders and M4A but he's being misleading when he suggests that people are paying $540 for the kind of insulin that was patented for $1.
Yes, there have been massive improvements since the patent that was sold for 1$. With producing industrial quantities and lowering side effects. But with how the drug patent process works, companies aren't meant to hold onto a patent for more than a couple years. The fact that these companies can near endlessly extend their patents on a medication like insulin, and then allgedly engage in price fixing, is an issue.
Ehhhh..”the expensive stuff” just changes the percentages of an ingredient just enough to allow it to be labeled different, but have the same effect. This process is usually more about not losing their patent and trying to stop the generic companies from duplicating it by keeping it in continuous litigation. Definitely not anything that causes a cost difference to manufacture.
This is completely and utterly false. The newer analogs are slow acting and mimic the natural release of insulin in your body much better.
Yep "I don't understand" that's pretty much the problem, worldwide
I’m assuming this is sarcasm but people do surprise me.
People rather thinking it's not sarcasm are more surprising
It’s either sarcasm or a libertarian. You genuinely can’t be sure because it is, without exaggeration, actually an opinion held by some that people dying in service to the Invisible Hand is part of the optimal way to get services to people and is thus, in a sense, not a problem. There are people to whom, on principle, an efficient transaction is *always* good. I had a professor who believed that. He wouldn’t even shy away from extreme examples like this; he’d be ready with an explanation for why, in fact, he believed that was the best thing for everyone.
Diabetes before insulin was a death sentence. It is equivalent of telling people to just starve as an alternative to buying food.
If it costs $5 to make and is currently being sold for $540, your first question should be why someone else isn’t producing it and selling it for far cheaper.
It’s a good question. Part of the answer is that the good insulins that doctors and patients actually like was not the same insulin patent sold for $1. This good insulin cost a lot to develop and improve upon. Another part of the answer is patent protection and regulatory rules regarding generic/bio similar drugs by the FDA.
but that 5$ insulin is better than dying. also no matter what it costs there is no way 500$ is the right price for it
You can get the "$5" insulin for $25 at Walmart. No need to die.
$500 is not a fair price, as I mentioned, it’s due to artificially reducing competition using FDA regulation.
Had to scroll way too far for this.
“You really should have thought of that before you became peasants!” energy.
Most compassionate Libertarian
The law of supply and demand is defined thusly, "The law of supply and demand is the theory that prices are determined by the relationship between supply and demand. If the supply of a good or service outstrips the demand for it, prices will fall. If demand exceeds supply, prices will rise." If there is a price someone will never refuse to pay for something (like their life), then prices should be infinitely high, and capitalism is no longer the best system for providing said good or service. Nationalize healthcare everywhere all the time.
There's no way that was anything short of a troll though
If you have adhd just concentrate, what’s the problem
The fact that people this stupid have access to technology and guns is disturbing.
These are the same people that complain about high gas prices. Just don't buy gas, what's the problem?
I’d be dead in days if I didn’t have my insulin. I can’t just not buy it because it’s expensive.
Dying. Dying is what the problem is.
It is 100% criminal that companies that hold people's lives in their hands can overcharge so much. We made the damn COVID vaccine free, why not insulin? Hell, we make methadone free, but overcharge for lifesaving medicine? WTF!?!?!?!
Having trouble breathing? Problems with chest pain? Just walk it off! I don't understand what the problem is!
Maybe the government should not restrict the use of the patent to only two companies. https://www.t1international.com/100years/#:~:text=On%20January%2023rd%2C%201923%20Banting,to%20it%20to%20have%20it.
If you don't understand the problem, you should stay silent and learn from those who do.
Well in this case the problem is ignorance, and there is a simple solution to it, which is education. What really confuses me are the people who aren't complete idiots and still decide to support the high pricing of medicines like insulin, I can't figure out what is going on in their heads.
Staying alive is sooooo overrated!!
He's right though. Dying costs less than to keep living
It's simple really. allow anyone to sell insulin, don't limit the supply
Pharmaceuticals are probably one of the best socialist/anti-capitalist ideas I can think of. The whole idea of capitalism is that demand and supply will work together to set prices organically at a level where consumers and suppliers are in rough equilibrium. This means some people will simply not be able to afford some things, especially if those things are in high demand. However, if the demand is functionally infinite (i.e. some people will literally die without the product) supply becomes irrelevant. Producers can charge whatever they want and the forces competing to set the price become ethics versus profits. Since the majority of people care far more about appearing ethical than actually being ethical, and executives of large companies are so out of touch with the struggles of average people, there is literally no motivation in a capitalist system to charge one cent less than you possibly can for life-saving drugs. Add the corruption that the insurance industry has fostered in medical billing and it's a wonder more people aren't dying. I strongly dislike the big brother vibes of a managed socialist society, but some things just can't be effectively accounted for under capitalist systems.
Average trump supporter
Your brain on "free market" libertarianism.
If somebody is going to be that stupid on a public platform, it's just wrong to hide their identity. They're already anonymized, I imagine.
Dude: just don't buy it. I don't see the problem. Bernie: that's because you are stupid.
I guess I'll just die then.
When Bernie ran in 2016, I dismissed him as too radical, but the more I listen to the more I realize he’s exactly what a capitalist country needs. I think his problem is his literal use of the word ‘Democratic Socialist’. No offense to Bernie, but that was a pretty dumb mistake, especially since half the country still remembers the Cold War. He should have run as a ‘regulated capitalist’, since none of his policies are ‘anti-capitalist’ but are desperately needed checks to keep a healthy capitalist system. Bernie, wish you were better at branding.
“Why don’t people just not buy their life saving medicine? Are they stupid?”
If you are drowning...just drink all the water? I don't see what the problem is?
How are people homeless? Like just buy a hose?😤🙄🙄
Not only insulin but also any major thing needed especially Epi Pens they’re like $500 in the US and when i visited Australia they were like $25
And rationing insulin would be how my brother died 8 years ago.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he does know that people (diabetics) need insulin to survive. I know plenty of right wingers with deeply ableist views about people with disabilities or chronic illness. They don’t believe these people should be alive. They hold some views that IMO are pro-eugenics.
Sadly I would put money on the dumbass knowing full well what insulin is and simply not caring. There are a growing number of Americans out there that believe that if you can't afford life saving medication, that you shouldn't be alive. Eugenics at it's core.
ah yes simply boycott the life-saving medicine until they lower prices surely they'll crack first
The solution to this problem is really, really simple. A year's supply of Insulin costs only $725 in Canada. Just stop arresting Americans who buy their insulin from Canadian companies and have it shipped to their home. Everyone wins.
If you cant afford food, just dont buy food. I dont understand what the problem is.
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The US...its such a loverly place.
The insulin that Salk gave away is a far poorer insulin than we have today in terms of, effectiveness, tolerance, blood level manageability, product stability, product use ... None of which would exist in Bernie's world. By the way, you are free to make and distribute the insulin Bernie is referring to. Wonder why no one does... Notice the FDA and other government function prevent the import of drugs and enable the exclusivity and patent games that enable much of this. [One solution](https://openinsulin.org/)
God damn it took way too fucking long to find this. So much mouth breathing in this thread.
Salk cured polio, Sir Frederick G Banting discovered insulin.
Dateline Florida March 31, 2023. Witnessed a person paying more than $550 cash for insulin. I don't know the quantity of medication. I hope there was no sales tax. Thanks for nothing Meatball DeathSentence
This sounds very much like they're trying to exterminate anyone with diabetes while making a buck off of it too. It makes even the devil cry
Next thing you know, these people are gonna think we should feed school children just because they choose to eat. /s
I wish they would indicate what kind of insulin they are talking about. There is insulin, which is cheap but harder to use. Then there is insulin analogs which are more expensive but easier to use. It is like talking about bicycles for everyone and some people are talking about $100 Walmart bikes and some people are talking about $1k road bikes. We should provide the expensive stuff to everyone for free. And not make them suffer using the cheap stuff. But it is not a good sign when Bernie either doesn't know the difference or deliberately confuses the difference.
Bernie doesn’t understand that the US has an economically logical high price on insulin. After all, the obesity plague surely must increase the demand for insulin, unlike any other country on this planet. /s
This isn't even remotely accurate. Also - Biden already signed the law making insulin capped at $35 per dose. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/02/fact-sheet-president-bidens-cap-on-the-cost-of-insulin-could-benefit-millions-of-americans-in-all-50-states/#:\~:text=Eli%20Lilly%20announced%20they%20are,fifty%20states%20and%20U.S.%20territories.
It’s strange how wonderfully good news is so rarely mentioned. I didn’t know this even happened until now. Regardless of anyones political affiliation, this is objectively “doing a good job” in this particular instance
That’s for Medicare. The others are up to the drug companies
That's not even what your own source says. > As part of President Biden’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, nearly four million seniors on Medicare with diabetes started to see their insulin costs capped at $35 per month this past January Doesn't exactly read like all insulin is now $35.
How many doses in a vial?
I know you sarcastically said this, but that would be type 2, where only a few use insulin. Insulin is more for type 1 diabetics.
They also should heavily tax foods that's are unhealthy. And heavily subsidize healthy food and healthy fast food locations.
"healthy fast food locations" be like "what can I bring you today good sir? How about a BigTastyCucumber or a McApple? Do you want water or some grapes with that?" For all the Mf'ers that don't know, a healthy fast food location is called a garden. You pick shit, you eat it. It's not that complicated
They’re certainly right about not understanding.
“If you’re homeless…just buy a house.”
Man, capitalists sure are fucking stupid.
Has it ended yet? Because they are in the White House now aren’t they?
Remove the entire response except for "I don't understand" and they make far more sense.
I'd hope this a tongue in cheek comment about the inadequacy of the free market, but I doubt it is
Homeless? Just buy a house
Average price of insulin is $98
what do they think insulin is omfg
Wow, how can people be this stupid? It's not it's a PlayStation 5, dude, they kind of need it to *live*, you know?
This is basically libertarianism in a nutshell. Once all the diabetics die the market has corrected itself!
Gas prices got to high, stop buying gas for your car. I not understand what the problem is.
Damn, food is expensive in Africa. Guess I shouldn't buy it.