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(NPR)   Your days of free COVID test kits are nearly over, citizen. But don't worry, I'm sure the drug companies will price them responsibly   (npr.org) divider line
    More: Unlikely, Vaccination, Insurance, Vaccine, United States, Government, Public health, Health insurance, Economics  
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1703 clicks; posted to Main » and Politics » on 08 Feb 2023 at 9:24 AM (6 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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2023-02-08 8:49:57 AM  
I needed a PCR test and then I saw how much it would cost me out of pocket and I decided against it.

American healthcare in a nutshell.
 
2023-02-08 8:52:57 AM  
And this is with the "responsible" party in charge.
 
2023-02-08 8:53:18 AM  
"We see a double-digit billion[-dollar] market opportunity," investors were told at a JPMorgan conference in San Francisco recently by Ryan Richardson, chief strategy officer for BioNTech. The company expects a gross price - the full price before any discounts - of $110 a dose, which, Richardson said, "is more than justified from a health economics perspective."

Your health, and quite possibly, your life, has a price and you'll pay or get sick, and maybe die.

But think of all the evil socialism that will have been avoided.

The American healthcare system is unconscionably inhuman.
 
2023-02-08 8:56:50 AM  
"We see a double-digit billion[-dollar] market opportunity,"

Also American healthcare in a nutshell.
 
2023-02-08 9:03:36 AM  
Are you libs trying to tell me America doesn't have the BEST health care system in the entire world?

How dare you!

/It's so frustrating to know how many people can't access even the most basic of care.
 
2023-02-08 9:05:19 AM  

Rev.K: Your health, and quite possibly, your life, has a price and you'll pay or get sick, and maybe die.


Don't matter. Insurance pays!

What? Uninsured people?

I've been assured that uninsured people are just FUD created by democrats so they can foist free healthcare on 'Mercins.
 
2023-02-08 9:06:42 AM  
i.pinimg.comView Full Size
 
2023-02-08 9:12:14 AM  
we're the only advanced country in the world where basic healthcare isn't a right, it's a revenue stream.
 
2023-02-08 9:25:49 AM  
Antigen test is about $10 over the counter at CVS

If you need a PCR test for some reason that could get expensive
 
2023-02-08 9:26:19 AM  
I just paid 7.99 for one at target
 
2023-02-08 9:26:45 AM  
Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.
 
2023-02-08 9:30:18 AM  
Of course the price will go up. It's simple supply and demand. Nobody cares about COVID anymore, so when Uncle Sam stops buying tests, insurance companies will have to raise the price. You can't expect them to lose shareholder value simply because of a radical change in the market. Geez.
 
2023-02-08 9:31:14 AM  

FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.


Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.
 
2023-02-08 9:32:22 AM  

DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.


Now just imagine if their immune system wasn't prepared at all...
 
2023-02-08 9:33:10 AM  

FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.


Until the booster wears off and you cannot get a new booster for an extended period for "reasons."  Some pharmacies were denying the boosters here for anyone under 65. None of the physicians in the area would administer it as it cost them too much.  If my workplace wasn't providing free booster clinics, a lot of us wouldn't have had access.  That's the bureaucracy now.  I cannot wait until it's all insurance based.
 
2023-02-08 9:33:50 AM  
It's $17 for a two-pack from Abbot.  I had to buy some in December.

The bummer is that the government ones were much easier to work with.
 
2023-02-08 9:34:48 AM  

arrogantbastich: DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.

Now just imagine if their immune system wasn't prepared at all...


And now that there's no more federal funding for booster shots...

We are a nation where almost no one is taking this seriously, even the so-called "smart" people.
 
2023-02-08 9:35:05 AM  

DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.


Same here, i finally got it and was leveled for 4 days.  Fully boosted and everything.

/do not want again
 
2023-02-08 9:35:10 AM  

FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.


Whole family got it last May. We had all been fully vaccinated, but we had dragged our feet on getting boosted. Everyone had different symptoms, but I would also describe it as a bad cold. I had two violent coughing fits though, in addition to a regular cough that lasted for a couple weeks.
 
2023-02-08 9:35:25 AM  

Rev.K: Your health, and quite possibly, your life, has a price and you'll pay or get sick, and maybe die.

But think of all the evil socialism that will have been avoided.


The same is true in socialized healthcare systems.  You still pay.  You just pay less, because the costs are spread over the whole population, and the government is in a better position to negotiate prices.
 
2023-02-08 9:35:28 AM  

lectos: That's the bureaucracy now.  I cannot wait until it's all insurance based.


You think your insurance is just going to soak up the costs of everyone getting COVID boosters at three times the price after May 11?
 
2023-02-08 9:36:24 AM  

Ambitwistor: The same is true in socialized healthcare systems.  You still pay.  You just pay less, because the costs are spread over the whole population, and the government is in a better position to negotiate prices.


So let's see.

The government pays less.

So I also pay less.


Gee, this system sounds horrible, better turn it over to private insurance and let them charge whatever they want. That's clearly a superior option.
 
2023-02-08 9:36:36 AM  

FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.


My wife thought she was having bad allergies until I caught them.

/both boosted.
 
2023-02-08 9:37:19 AM  
You humans have defied me for the Last Time!

I will release the variant with 100% morality.

Yeah ... this version of Covid forces people to stop being a-holes to each other.
 
2023-02-08 9:38:28 AM  

DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.


It still very much depends. Covid is absolutely killing people still. But not as many, and not as frequently.

It's a serious disease, but the whole point of being vaxxed and boosted is that when you do get it, usually, it will be mild, or almost unnoticed. You know, except when it's not.
 
2023-02-08 9:38:36 AM  

Rev.K: Ambitwistor: The same is true in socialized healthcare systems.  You still pay.  You just pay less, because the costs are spread over the whole population, and the government is in a better position to negotiate prices.

So let's see.

The government pays less.

So I also pay less.


Gee, this system sounds horrible, better turn it over to private insurance and let them charge whatever they want. That's clearly a superior option.


Yea, i hear the populations with soshilized health care are just chomping at the bit to get rid of it....just like American elderly on Medicare and all those moochers in the military getting TriCare for peanuts.  They ALL want to get in on that private insurance bandwagon!  /s
 
2023-02-08 9:38:41 AM  

asmodeus224: DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.

Same here, i finally got it and was leveled for 4 days.  Fully boosted and everything.

/do not want again


Same here.  Wife and I caught it back in December and had to miss a whole week of work.

/both fully vaccinated
 
2023-02-08 9:38:50 AM  
And at least there are no long-term health impacts from getting COVID, it's just a mild cold!

/the long-term health impacts will also be exorbitant to treat, so the system works!
 
2023-02-08 9:42:03 AM  

TheFoz: asmodeus224: DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.

Same here, i finally got it and was leveled for 4 days.  Fully boosted and everything.

/do not want again

Same here.  Wife and I caught it back in December and had to miss a whole week of work.

/both fully vaccinated


Looking back (and forward) i think i should have gone (will go) to a doctor, i hear there are treatments for it that help.  I was seriously laid up for days and i was actually a little concerned after day 2 of a 103 fever.
 
2023-02-08 9:44:00 AM  

Rev.K: Ambitwistor: The same is true in socialized healthcare systems.  You still pay.  You just pay less, because the costs are spread over the whole population, and the government is in a better position to negotiate prices.

So let's see.

The government pays less.

So I also pay less.


Gee, this system sounds horrible, better turn it over to private insurance and let them charge whatever they want. That's clearly a superior option.


Calm down.  I'm not arguing with you about the advantages of socialized healthcare.  I am, however, pointing out that it's sort of ridiculous hyperbole to declaim YOUR LIFE HAS A PRICE PAY OR DIE!!! when literally every health care system puts a price on health.
 
2023-02-08 9:46:25 AM  

asmodeus224: DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.

Same here, i finally got it and was leveled for 4 days.  Fully boosted and everything.

/do not want again


I got it in July from my wife who tested positive on a Monday.  She probably got it at the gym or my kid got it at summer camp.  I started feeling meh so I tested, I was negative on Wednesday and Friday and finally tested positive on Sunday.  I'm certain I was infected that whole week.  I work from home.

It was no big deal.  The flu I got in October and the whatever I got in December (probably RSV) were worse.  I picked up another booster in January.

As for long Covid, I'm already carrying Epstein Barr which causes MS and multiple myeloma.  I'm more worried about that.
 
2023-02-08 9:47:44 AM  

Ambitwistor: Rev.K: Ambitwistor: The same is true in socialized healthcare systems.  You still pay.  You just pay less, because the costs are spread over the whole population, and the government is in a better position to negotiate prices.

So let's see.

The government pays less.

So I also pay less.


Gee, this system sounds horrible, better turn it over to private insurance and let them charge whatever they want. That's clearly a superior option.

Calm down.  I'm not arguing with you about the advantages of socialized healthcare.  I am, however, pointing out that it's sort of ridiculous hyperbole to declaim YOUR LIFE HAS A PRICE PAY OR DIE!!! when literally every health care system puts a price on health.


In Canada, if you have no money and you haven't paid taxes ever, and you become hospitalized with a life-threatening illness, injury, or condition, they will treat you with whatever intervention is necessary for free.

For free.

You pay no direct costs.

So no, every system does not put a price on life.
 
2023-02-08 9:48:30 AM  

Rev.K: Ambitwistor: Rev.K: Ambitwistor: The same is true in socialized healthcare systems.  You still pay.  You just pay less, because the costs are spread over the whole population, and the government is in a better position to negotiate prices.

So let's see.

The government pays less.

So I also pay less.


Gee, this system sounds horrible, better turn it over to private insurance and let them charge whatever they want. That's clearly a superior option.

Calm down.  I'm not arguing with you about the advantages of socialized healthcare.  I am, however, pointing out that it's sort of ridiculous hyperbole to declaim YOUR LIFE HAS A PRICE PAY OR DIE!!! when literally every health care system puts a price on health.

In Canada, if you have no money and you haven't paid taxes ever, and you become hospitalized with a life-threatening illness, injury, or condition, they will treat you with whatever intervention is necessary for free.

For free.

You pay no direct costs.

So no, every system does not put a price on life.


Yes but that's socialism and socialism is bad so we have fearmonger about it.
 
2023-02-08 9:51:28 AM  
Nothing is ever free.
 
2023-02-08 9:54:14 AM  

AdmirableSnackbar: And at least there are no long-term health impacts from getting COVID, it's just a mild cold!


That was definitely my experience, for sure.

I finally caught COVID in December 2021, after one of my kids brought it home from school.  By that point, I had already received my initial vaccine (J&J) and a booster dose (Pfizer), which likely explains why it was so mild.  But honestly it was like the mildest cold I've ever had.  I had two days of runny nose, and then it was over.  No fever, no cough, no headache, no loss or taste, or any of the other symptoms.  If it weren't for positive test results (both rapid and PCR) in those two days, I never would have thought it was COVID.

At this point, everyone is my family has had it at least once (my oldest was unlikely enough to catch it twice), and it's been like a mild-to-moderate cold for everyone.  Haven't noticed any lingering symptoms.  Seems to be the way it is evolving.  For those who have immunity from vaccination and/or prior infection, reinfections are probably going to present mostly as mild respiratory disease.  Much like all of the other coronaviruses that are endemic in the population - they all cause seasonal common cold.  Seems to be the way this one is headed too.
 
2023-02-08 9:57:04 AM  

asmodeus224: DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.

Same here, i finally got it and was leveled for 4 days.  Fully boosted and everything.

/do not want again


I just had neurological effects - memory loss and "brain fog". My wife thought I was having a stroke.
I'm a codger with a dodgy cardiovascular system, so I ended up on a course of Molnupiravir, which seems to have sorted things out.
 
2023-02-08 9:57:32 AM  
Pfizer and Moderna were already planning their moves into the commercial market. Both have indicated that as soon as that happens, they will raise the price they charge, somewhere in the range of $110 to $130 per dose, though insurers and government health programs could negotiate lower rates.

That's ~4x the price being charged currently though the government.

As for COVID treatments, an August blog post by the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response noted that government-purchased supplies of the drug Paxlovid are expected to last at least through midyear before the private sector takes over. The government's bulk purchase price from manufacturer Pfizer was $530 for a course of treatment, and it isn't yet known what the companies will charge once government supplies run out.

If we assume the current 4x markup, we're talking over $2k for a Pax treatment.

/our "Health Care" system makes me all stabby
 
2023-02-08 10:00:55 AM  

Rev.K: "We see a double-digit billion[-dollar] market opportunity," investors were told at a JPMorgan conference in San Francisco recently by Ryan Richardson, chief strategy officer for BioNTech. The company expects a gross price - the full price before any discounts - of $110 a dose, which, Richardson said, "is more than justified from a health economics perspective."

Your health, and quite possibly, your life, has a price and you'll pay or get sick, and maybe die.

But think of all the evil socialism that will have been avoided.

The American healthcare system is unconscionably inhuman.


Yeah, especially on this one. WE paid for the research and development. We paid for them to make a profit off of close to a billion doses already (combined between all of them and counting double shots and boosters).

Now, they are gonna keep charging 100 plus bucks for something that costs them 20 at most to create and ship. fark right the fark off
 
2023-02-08 10:01:38 AM  

FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.


That's worth Dying Suddenly for.
 
2023-02-08 10:01:49 AM  

Doc Daneeka: AdmirableSnackbar: And at least there are no long-term health impacts from getting COVID, it's just a mild cold!

That was definitely my experience, for sure.

I finally caught COVID in December 2021, after one of my kids brought it home from school.  By that point, I had already received my initial vaccine (J&J) and a booster dose (Pfizer), which likely explains why it was so mild.  But honestly it was like the mildest cold I've ever had.  I had two days of runny nose, and then it was over.  No fever, no cough, no headache, no loss or taste, or any of the other symptoms.  If it weren't for positive test results (both rapid and PCR) in those two days, I never would have thought it was COVID.

At this point, everyone is my family has had it at least once (my oldest was unlikely enough to catch it twice), and it's been like a mild-to-moderate cold for everyone.  Haven't noticed any lingering symptoms.  Seems to be the way it is evolving.  For those who have immunity from vaccination and/or prior infection, reinfections are probably going to present mostly as mild respiratory disease.  Much like all of the other coronaviruses that are endemic in the population - they all cause seasonal common cold.  Seems to be the way this one is headed too.


Plus the cardiovascular issues (we're seeing a massive increase in heart attacks among young people with repeated infections), it's almost like a virus that eats away at your vital organs is something that causes problems in the long run whether or not you're vaccinated and boosted.
 
2023-02-08 10:04:23 AM  
We only have 29 test kits left in the house.  Hopefully that's enough to get us to the next plague.
 
2023-02-08 10:11:40 AM  
This is the reason politicians and other interested parties that lie about SARS-CoV-2 deserve to be sentenced to death for human rights violations, specifically biological terrorism via artifice.
 
2023-02-08 10:13:01 AM  

DMDmarty: FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.

Horseshiat, My wife just got it a few days ago after successfully avoiding it and we are fully boosted.
It is not like a mild cold at all.


Yeah I was going to post something similar, but I couldn't tell if the original commenter was being sarcastic or not. I got diagnosed on thanksgiving day. Fully vaxxed and boosted, all moderna. I couldn't get out of bed for a week. It was the worst sickness I ever had. They kept an oxygen monitor on me the whole time worried I was going to have to go on the vent. Luckily I never did. After that first week of living hell, over the next two weeks I slowly got better and right about the 3rd week was when I started feeling like a person again.
 
2023-02-08 10:15:04 AM  
Covid already killed most of those at risk.  If you are alive, you're likely not one of them.

Vaccine will take the credit
 
2023-02-08 10:20:14 AM  

AdmirableSnackbar: Doc Daneeka: AdmirableSnackbar: And at least there are no long-term health impacts from getting COVID, it's just a mild cold!

That was definitely my experience, for sure.

I finally caught COVID in December 2021, after one of my kids brought it home from school.  By that point, I had already received my initial vaccine (J&J) and a booster dose (Pfizer), which likely explains why it was so mild.  But honestly it was like the mildest cold I've ever had.  I had two days of runny nose, and then it was over.  No fever, no cough, no headache, no loss or taste, or any of the other symptoms.  If it weren't for positive test results (both rapid and PCR) in those two days, I never would have thought it was COVID.

At this point, everyone is my family has had it at least once (my oldest was unlikely enough to catch it twice), and it's been like a mild-to-moderate cold for everyone.  Haven't noticed any lingering symptoms.  Seems to be the way it is evolving.  For those who have immunity from vaccination and/or prior infection, reinfections are probably going to present mostly as mild respiratory disease.  Much like all of the other coronaviruses that are endemic in the population - they all cause seasonal common cold.  Seems to be the way this one is headed too.

Plus the cardiovascular issues (we're seeing a massive increase in heart attacks among young people with repeated infections), it's almost like a virus that eats away at your vital organs is something that causes problems in the long run whether or not you're vaccinated and boosted.


Exactly this--this is a chronic infection with a potentially fatal acute phase.  Those that don't die right away will die later on.  It may take a decade to a decade and a half, but there's no way a virus can turn your organs to slush without eventually killing you
 
2023-02-08 10:24:13 AM  
Do these have an expiration date?
 
2023-02-08 10:24:45 AM  

FlashHarry: Thought to be fair, if you're boosted (and you should be), catching covid is like catching a mild cold at this point.

I finally caught it last November, and I didn't even get a fever. All it was was a day of aches and then an annoying dry cough that lasted for about 10 days.


Well, that's your experience. I'm vaxxed and double boosted, flu shot and pneumonia vaccine in September. I caught covid in November, took paxlovid, it's February and I'm still sick. It hasn't been the "I'm going to die sick" it's been the "I'm tired, achy, coughing, tired, tired, achy, tired sick".
I also never stopped masking. I'm currently trying to build up some semblance of strength and endurance. I'm exhausted all the time.
My doctor is blaming everything on covid.
 
2023-02-08 10:25:28 AM  
So this is Operation Impulse Speed?
 
2023-02-08 10:25:31 AM  

FlashHarry: we're the only advanced country in the world where basic healthcare isn't a right, it's a revenue stream.


As someone from one of those socialist hellholes, let me assure you that you can have both - free healthcare AND corporate greed / cost cutting.
 
2023-02-08 10:31:42 AM  
Great! Lets add that to the medical debt!

Cheap houses, broke people, it's the American way!

Don't ever change, my RRSP portfolio depends on it :)
 
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