this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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the_dunk_tank
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It's the dunk tank.
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Drugs like Truvada have been used to prevent the transmission of HIV. Without insurance, prescriptions can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars. The patents for drugs that prevent HIV transmission are owned by Gilead, and they make the drugs cheaper in other countries (because their representatives negotiated prices unlike the US).
Only a truly depraved person could understand or witness the devastation of the AIDS crisis and still allow such drugs to stay behind a paywall. I know part of the pushback around treating HIV stems from a legacy of hate, but I couldn't imagine being a worker at Gilead or a politician who has the powder to affect drug prices (like by removing patents for critical drugs).
And then these politicians, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and lobbyists do this for other drugs.
Did you know there's a cure for hepatitis C? It's months of treatments and costs thousands of dollars. I worked in a hospital with a patient who took medication for hepatitis C. When we saw the announcement on the news together a few years ago, she looked so happy and excited to finally be cured. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she likely wouldn't be able to afford the cure since it's more profitable to sell a regular treatment for life.
Diabetes and cancer treatments have the same oppressive pricing issues where patients try to space out their medications to afford them. People have died because they couldn't afford rent and medications.
People go on dialysis indefinitely instead of getting a permanent treatment like organ transplant because DeVita and other companies make a profit from making clean blood a subscription service.
And don't even get me started on the handling of COVID at any point. The fact that Bill Fucking Gates had any say in how vaccines were patented or distributed is enough cause for foreign intervention in a just world.
I'm disgusted by the cold cruelty on display when people treat lukewarm concessions, such as price negotiation, like acceptable solutions. I hate that the vague fear of communism is enough to convince reactionaries to fight against the smallest amounts of progress.
Long rant short - death to America, pharmaceutical companies, patents, and the people who own them.
And also, fucking Medicare? I'd love to wait until I'm retirement age so that I can cut coupons to afford the many drugs I'll have to take since I couldn't afford to get preventative treatment in my thirties.