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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday
WOODLAND PARK, Colo. - GOP contender Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday, arguing that drug companies were entitled to charge whatever the market demanded for life-saving therapies.
Santorum, himself the father of a child with a rare genetic disorder, compared buying drugs to buying an iPad, and said demand would determine the cost of medical therapies.
"People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad," Santorum said, "but paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with - it keeps you alive. Why? Because you've been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it."
The mother said the boy was on the drug Abilify, used to treat schizophrenia, and that, on paper, its costs would exceed $1 million each year.
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/rick-santorum-tells-sick-kid-market-set-drug-004745384--abc-news.html
Little Star
(17,055 posts)zbdent
(35,392 posts)are far too expensive for the 99% to pool together their money to buy ...
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)until doomsday and nothing would get through. That kind of stupidity and arrogance goes to the bone.
nobodyspecial
(2,286 posts)People who don't buy and iPad won't die. People who don't have access to life-saving drugs will die.
You really want the market to decide how much a life is worth?
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)hyphenate
(12,496 posts)It was going to take me four months to pay for a Kindle Fire for myself. My brother bought it for me for Xmas, and I thought it was the bestest present I ever got--in my life!
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)with it. How do you like it? I have the regular kindle I got for my husband a couple of years ago and he doesn't like it. So I use it. But I just can't see paying for a Ipad $900. Sandy is an idiot. I hope that woman told him that she couldn't afford it either.
hyphenate
(12,496 posts)But I've got a decent amount of ebooks and other stuff for it I've gotten over the past couple of years that I've downloaded myself, so I loaded a lot of them onto it.
You can get a lot of free PDF files at books.google.com, most of them public domain with the complete books, or from a couple of other sites with large collections of old books. Even Amazon has a nice little section of free books available to download.
I read a lot of magazines, and that's one of the reasons I wanted the color one, because it's hard to read a magazine like Architectural Digest on a black and white ereader! And when I go to appointments, it's nice not to have to read a magazine that everyone and his brother has been pawing through, with god knows what germs on their hands.
I enjoyed it on the plane, too--less weight than carrying half a dozen books around with me!
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)PCIntern
(25,656 posts)nanabugg
(2,198 posts)PCIntern
(25,656 posts)uponit7771
(90,371 posts)...this isn't what MOST Christians act like
atreides1
(16,118 posts)To actually show up...and tell people the truth about Christianity! But until they do, this is the example everyone gets to see, and this is why MOST Christians get a bad rep.
EFerrari
(163,986 posts)Patiod
(11,816 posts)Glimmer of Hope
(5,823 posts)hyphenate
(12,496 posts)who is an idiot. Imbecile.
dana_b
(11,546 posts)unless you want a medication from oh say Canada. Then it's bad.
Oh -and I've never heard of a $1M iPad. Heartless fuck.
KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)Not "go broke" - just lower middle class - where *they* can't have Medicaid or Medicare and have pay out of their own wages what "the market" says drugs in the USA are "worth".
xfundy
(5,105 posts)People will give up all their money, all their possessions, including their house, just to live another day.
Day after that?
Fuck 'em, say repigs.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)any better or this poor woman's problem any easier but Abilify at the highest dose and at full retail is $10,000/yr not $1,000,000
DianaForRussFeingold
(2,552 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)hate that bastard with a billion passions.
Ms. Toad
(34,130 posts)Ouch.
It is a medication she would have been on the rest of her life, had the trial she was in worked. I had been estimating $40-60,000 a year when I was anticipating using it (she was on it for free as part of a year long trial - so all I had to go by was internet mail order estimates). Now that I am actually paying for it I can be more precise. At the dose she was on during the trial, the cost would have been $176,000 for the year. Guess I underestimated.
Fortunately, this is a short term use for a different condition. But still, ouch.
Unfortunately, because the trial didn't work she will ultimately need a liver transplant.
Sad thing is, the medication is very old and is available for IV use for about $80 for the same quantity we purchased for $3008 - the capsule version is new enough to still be covered by a patent.
But - the drug companies must make their profits - it was oh-so-hard for them to figure out how to stuff that powder into capsules.
AzDar
(14,023 posts)Heal the sick, feed the hungry, love thy fucking neighbor...
Vattel
(9,289 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)daughter went through makes him even MORE of a vile, sub-human cretin than he otherwise would have been.
izquierdista
(11,689 posts)I was hoping Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a stuck radiator valve. Now that would have been
Especially when the valve got the better of him.
pacalo
(24,721 posts)Of course, I didn't mean to include the egg in the womb. Because they have self-rightousness to exploit, they have the gall to call themselves PRO-LIFE! And we ALLOW them to get away with it without setting them straight at the get-go. Just look at the ease at which they speak of allowing a human life to deteriorate because "the market must be able to make a profit". Sorry, we would have been able to muster up the concern for you if you were a little tadpole in the womb. After that, you're on your own.
I'm so embarrassed for him as a human being.
IndyJones
(1,068 posts)I have a huge problem with buying an iPad, so I don't buy one. We pay sooooo much for our insurance. To say that to a mother who needs medicine for her child is unbelievable!
Life Long Dem
(8,582 posts)Doesn't matter the costs would exceed $1 million each year. That's some crazy demand. Someone please show this guy the door.
I misread that. Still, 1200 patients a year or 100 a month for a year is over $1 million each year.
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)instead he is talking about IPAD's.
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...so let's say an Ipad costs $900 and a life-saving drug costs $900.
Next month, you won't need another Ipad. You already have one. But you will need another round of drugs. And you will need them the next month, and the month after that, etc.
Also: that family's estimated yearly expense for medication exceeds $1M per year. That's a lot of Ipads.
And also, why are our drugs so expensive here in the USA? I thought our tax dollars are paying for R&D, and therefore, they're basically subsidized, we're just not getting the benefits of that.