Brexit: Tory minister admits US will be able to increase price of drugs bought by NHS

I actually just finished reading this news article here in the US (hopefully the link will work for you): www.nbcnews.com/news/world/nhs-specter-u-s-interference-looms-over-health-care-debate-n1082121

Do everything you can to keep "Big Pharma" from getting its claws on your health care system. Health is NOT their main concern by a LONG shot. They care about PROFITS to the detriment of us all. One of the families here in the US who recently lost a law suit brought against them for contributing to the horrific opioid epidemic predictably hid billions in assets in off-shore accounts. BILLIONS.

GracesGran I read a weekly american magazine which always has a health section. Most people there have to contribute financially to some insurance plan, which might or might not agree to pay for some treatment you need. I think there could be a cheaper way for the very poor.
The med insurance companies are very wealthy and I expect would love to expand abroad.

Ed Poole
@edwardpoole1975

As the manager of a GP practice I know the NHS can't take another five years of this Conservative government's outsourcing, privatisations, and cuts.

So I'm taking election week off work to campaign for
@UKLabour
and a better future for everyone.

#NHSNotforSale
#LabourForHope

twitter.com/edwardpoole1975/status/1202519721939230720?s=20

That iceberg really sums it up!

First woman: 10 Grand! for a baby!

Next guy: Is there a price for that? (the film doesn't say what for)
$100?
Interviewer: Two and a half grand

Guy 2 asked the cost of an ambulance call-out replies "zero payment"
Interviewer: Zero payment?
G2: Yeh, zero payment
Int: No, it costs two and a half thousand dollars.
G2: For real?
Int: Yeah
G2: Okay, cool. (nervously)

Int: An inhaler?
Second woman: $100
Int: Yeah, you're pretty close; it's a little bit more
SW: $120
Int: $250 tp $350
SW: For an inhaler?
Int: Mm
SW: Man. So if you're poor, you're dead.

That's only a short bit. A link would really help

Yes I saw that gg3 don’t know how to do links though.

I have to admit that I don't do twitter. I am still trying to work it out. I imagine our age group are not the greatest users but the tweet that got the most likes/retweets (?) yesterday into today was one made by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I have posted it here but perhaps someone could link it for veracity. I will tell you in the next post what the people are saying.

There was a fact check bit on Today this morning.

There is a real issue with the NHS. Do US Pharmas want greater access to the NHS? Yes. Will they keep lobbying? Yes, just as big US agricultural companies are going to keep lobbying for more access to our food supply.

Yes, the UK can say no to all of that. However, a blanket no on both these sectors might give us so little in return from the US that you begin to ask how useful any trade deal would be.

To summerise. If you want a trade deal with the US instead of the one we have with the EU we will have to give up protecting our very good drugs buying which will be at great cost to the NHS and we will have to lower our standards for foods. Otherwise, we will not get anywhere near enough to replace what we lose.

This

As well as the US pharmaceutical companies, I would be surprised if the US Health insurance companies haven't got their sights set on our financially struggling NHS hospital trusts.

It matters not where drugs are produced they are subject to supply and demand just like any other commodity. Some are made in the US others are made in India or China, if a company spends billions on developing a new treatment it wants to see a profit on that in the years before the patent elapses.
We all want paying for the work we do wether that be £10 or £50 per hour, we dont work for nothing nor do drug companies

I find the notion that we will just go out and negotiate any deals we want extremely naive. We may be the 5th wealthiest country in the world. So what? Does that give us a magic negotiating wand? I believe that we will soon find out that the so called ”special relationship” we have with the US is not so special after all.

GG13 The other countries are where Glaxo (origins New Zealand) Smith Kline operate. Glaxo merged with Burroughs Welcome in 1995, Beechams merged with Smith Kline in 1989.

Glaxo and SK merged in 2000. They are the 3rd largest pharmaceutical group in the world and employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. They have a large operation in India which is where many people think we will be able to buy our drugs from.

So, I don't think it will be that easy to shop around for the best prices.

No, I didn’t think you could.

So - can you counter GGMk3’s post paragraph for paragraph Urm? I’m sure, if what she claims is untrue true, it must be very easy for you to do

Nope. Won’t even try.
Life’s way too short to dig that deep!

My, the hours must just fly by at GGmk3’s house!

Oh right varian not The Independent newspaper that put funds in, organised and arranged coach transport then for the Remain demonstrations in London. Not that one?

The Independent is not left wing. It is independent and politically neutral.

It may seem left wing to readers of The Daily Mail, Sun, Telegraph and Express but analysis of newspapers in the run up to the fraudulent referendum of 2016 found that The Independent and The "i" were completely balanced in their coverage of leave and remain arguments.

So - can you counter GGMk3’s post paragraph for paragraph Urm? I’m sure, if what she claims is untrue true, it must be very easy for you to do.

Oh you must mean instead of the left-wing press then Scj (the Independent) that GGmk3 referred us all to!

Rather than getting all affronted by the excellent post by GracesGranMK3 perhaps you’d like to counter it with actual, hard evidence to the contrary (that you haven’t lifted from the right wing press)?

The UK is still the fifth wealthiest country in the world, it is not a banana republic, mind you reading some of the posts on here some believe it to be one.

GGMK3 For the record, I am not your "dear old sweet thing", resorting to patronising comments as per usual.

The nastiness to other posters is coming from the left, I should have put money on it!!

As for those documents Jeremy Corbyn was on This Morning early today where he was asked if the documents had been downloaded from "Reddit" and was he sure that they were not fake..........and guess what he couldn't answer!!!

‘You dear old sweet thing you.’

‘You may have heard if you weren’t burying your head in the sand.’

‘You and some of your bitter little friends ...’

Oh goodness GGmk3 you’ve started so soon with the chikdish rudeness ‼️

Gave me a laugh anyway!

The ex diplomat on the show gave a really rational view on how US conduct negotiations.

That would be the ex REPUBLICAN diplomat Tooting. Did you expect he would give you a balanced and uncontroversial "view"?

You do know that countries other than USA have pharmaceutical industries. The UK should be able to shop around for the best deal possible.

You dear old sweet thing you. When we are dealing with the USA they are very, very big and have a great deal of clout. They will say to us that if we want to sell into the US without Trump's tariffs we will have to offer a quid pro quo. Trump is very fond of these. You may have heard.

In the recently revealed papers which, I imagine, like all other things you don't like you are trying to ignore, we learned that US officials repeated Trump’s concerns that countries like Britain aren’t "paying enough for our medicines", with a special concern about cutting edge biological medicines used in the treatment of many cancers. Introducing a US-style pricing regime would make such drugs unaffordable to the NHS.

You may have heard if you weren't burying your head in the sand, that our trade negotiators received special lobbying from pharmaceutical corporations as part of these trade talks.

On our own, we will simply be too small to deny Trump what he wants. The idea that we can simply walk away from trying to deal with him is for the birds and, as we have already treated our closed friends and allies like s**t they wont want to do good deals with us either. What will happen GG13 when we can't say no to the US, or China, or India.

Now I know you and some of your bitter little friends will tell us you know more than the experts, but I simply don't believe you. Usually, the next resort is a personal attack or childish rudeness. However, all our futures depend on everyone opening their minds to the real possibility that, although a very few people will get very rich the rest of us will suffer for decades to come.