The Inhumanity of US drug prices compared to other countries

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. I will be buying a generic version of Gilead's Hep C drug Harvoni from India.

That's the stuff that's $1,000 a pill in the US. That's $56,000 for an eight-week course of treatment. The Indian generic will cost about $1,000 for the whole course.

My insurance company has a deal with Gilead where the cost would only be $12,000, and with my annual pay-out cap, I would have to come up with $6,000 of it. But I would have to undergo a second liver biopsy and I would have to show signs of significant liver damage before they would authorize it. In other words, I have a disease that could destroy my liver and there's a pill to prevent it, but my insurer wants my liver to be damaged before they will authorize it.

It's not exactly legal to import that stuff from India (in my understanding), but I'm gonna give it a try.

Another possibility is just flying to India, hunkering down for eight weeks and doing the treatment there. That'd still be cheaper than the deal with my insurance company, plus I'd have a reason to go to India! I already found a nice place in the Himalayan hill country.

But that's all ridiculous. Outrageous. Gilead is raking in billion-dollar profits. I think we ought to nationalize the entire pharmaceutical industry. The health of our citizens shouldn't be a profit-making enterprise.