In the sweet spot between free markets and socialism, we find our obviously neglectful and exploitive pharmaceutical industry. While the temptations to vilify some CEO for his salary or point to the high price of a new HIV medications is strong, both notions are ripe pieces of low hanging fruit that don’t adequately address the issue.

Quite simply, the prices of existing medications increase hundreds of times faster than the rate of inflation. Oral medication prices went up 10 % last year, while injectables went up over 15 %. How is this possible? No one cares. Medicare does not negotiate over medication costs.

Private insurers have nothing to gain by negotiation either, as they can hike premiums on their captive audience. Pharmaceutical companies being paid tax payer dollars simply choose the price – and we get to sit in the corner and get told that our insurance plans are going to get more expensive. It’s kind of insulting tbh