Quote:
Originally Posted by Stentor
According to CMS (agency of US government), roughly $250 billion was spent on drugs (branded and generic) in the US last year. That pales in comparison to the almost $1.3 trillion that was spent on hospital and physician services.
While PhRMA cut a deal with Obama, the AMA and physicians aren't rolling over either when it comes to health reform (e.g., lobbying heavily against proposed 21% decrease in physician reimbursement under Medicare scheduled to go into effect next month; it will cost upwards of $200 billion if the decrease in reimbursement isn't enacted). All parties are trying to cover their arses.  |
It depends upon your perspective I guess. To me, if 17% of all healthcare dollars is spent on meds, to me that is a huge figure. Considering I worked for a pharmaceutical company, making drugs. I kind of have an idea what the productivity/cost of producing drugs is. If I remember correctly, one machine, run by one person, could make 20,000 pills / hour. Granted, there was labor also involved in material handling, blending, and team of workers for packaging, as well as sometimes coating and imprinting. I think the profit margin is pretty good in making drugs, although I was never privy to the financial details of my company.
The cost of "hands on" healthcare, doctors, nurses, is expensive, but obviously it is very labor intensive. There is also some good money in DME's, implants, etc.
The problem with decreasing reimbursement to doctors/hospitals, is that they will start cutting back on the services they provide to you/us, if they haven't already. Ever wonder why your doctor will not call in prescriptions for you anylonger, and make you come in for a visit? Office visits are getting shorter and shorter, with less one on one time? Doctor's only want to address one problem during an office visit, instead of multiple problems? If the government pays less, you will get less service.