Our Ayn Rand Health System.

[wurzel]

This was on NPR this week:

There was a company that made a baby formula for underweight babies (mainly on Medicaid) so that mothers could take care of them at home. The company that made it for some reason went out of business. So the pharmacies began to make up this formula and sell it for $30.00 for a month supply.

Another company approached the FDA to make the formula. The FDA agreed, because the pharmacies did not want to continue making it themselves. The company got its formula FDA approved and asked for patent protection against a pharmacy making a generic. Again the FDA agreed.

When the company began to supply the pharmacies with their formula the price was $1200.00 for a month supply. The pharmacies went ballistic (after all they knew what was in it). There was a FDA hearing where the company was forced to reduce the price to $600.00. Still an unconscionable mark up and another reason Medicaid is going broke.

But here's the Ayn Rand thing. The justification the company used for their original price was this. They discovered that an underweight baby in hospital cost the system an average of $51,000.00. So their argument was that even at $1200.00 per month this was a huge saving for the system. The actual cost of producing the formula was apparently irrelevant

[louis-t]

1. "B-b-b-b-ut the priiiiivate sector kin doo it cheaper and better...!1!!1!"

:eyes:

[azurnoir]

2. Actually baby forumula's even this one are paid for by a

supplemental nutrition program for low income women and children called WIC

http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/

http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/benefitsandservices/foodpkgallowances.HTM

a very successful program, that costs relatively little but still has been slashed in the new budget
albeit I suspect this is part of why the company making the formula marked it up so steeply and why the FDA brought the price down

[wurzel]

4. How "succesful" can this program be if suppliers can act like this?

[azurnoir]

5. the program has been around for a while since 1977 at least

this is a new development and the FDA has at least made them back off a bit the formula being referred to was sold under the name Lipil I believe, it is was a high fat high calorie formula nothing complicated hat this company is doing is similar to $1000 toilet seats we hear about the military buying, perhaps a lobbying effort should be made against this company gouging the government in this manner

[Indydem]

3. Its a drug, not formula.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4793730

The real problem is that the FDA, an agency that is supposed to protect us, got in bed with a greedy capitalist douchebag and we suffer. We know that the greedy capitalist douchebag is out to screw us; the real outrage is that the government is worthless.