Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
The thing I don't understand is that raising the cost of pharmaceutical drugs benefits almost no one. It's crippling to all but the rich, but even the rich should be fine with cheaper anything. Only the big companies and their top employees benefit, who make up an insignificant portion of the population.
I understand that companies need to be profitable and that some drugs are expensive to produce. Heck, I'll even buy that some people should get wealthy from it, but it's also obvious that drugs can be sold cheap enough and still allow those things to happen.
Why are drug companies in the U.S. so powerful?
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It wasn't a cap on prices, it was a cap on what individuals paid, with the government funding the difference. Trump wants to cut it so he can give billionaires more tax breaks.
But the policy was still pretty weak, as it didn't actually fix the problem of high drug prices; it just subsidized drug companies' already high prices. In most public systems, the government negotiates lower prices with drug companies to reduce costs for taxpayers, insurance companies, and individuals. But in this case, none of that really happened and it more or less just funnelled tax dollars to pharmaceutical companies. It still helped the individuals that benefited to be sure, but it's not really a viable strategy in the long term.