quote:

ORIGINAL: Archer

That Damned Panda

The point is that the margin of profit in Canada is low and is averaged out by a higher profit margin in the US.
Most companies at the board of directors level have a profit margin in mind for overall operations.
The board doesn't care who has to pay the resulting higher costs to make up the profit lost.

quote:

ORIGINAL: slutslave4u

quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen

I watched the first 5 minutes and got bored by the idiocy and transparency of the film maker.

They shot this on a Sunday. Anybody tried getting non urgent health care in the USA on a Sunday afternoon recently? Does your doctor have office hours on Sunday at 1PM? If you go to a hospital emergency room in the US and declare, as this guy did, that his condition was not urgent then you can expect to wait while they treat everyone who is urgent just as thi sguy was made to wait in Canada.

So for the first 5 minutes the film maker showed a startling lack of knowledge about the US system or was assuming his audience was truly stupid.

Now this was posted by pajama.com which makes its money by assuming people are stupid enough to believe the lies they sling so it isn't terribly surprising.

Yes my doctor is open on Sundays, his office is open 7 days a week 9-9....it is a clinic, he owns it, actually he owns several throughout the area and all of them are 7 days a week 9-9......I have been seeing them since 1983, and even now I can walk in, either the front or the back door (I have been told if the parking lot if very busy simply walk in the back door) and be generally seen right away.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity


None of the above, none of your strawmen resemble me. What I am saying is that because Americans do pay full cost, Canadians benefit.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Moonhead

quote:

ORIGINAL: Irishknight

I am all for a properly run health care system. The question is whether the current plan is it or not.

Having been exposed to the VA for years, I've seen instances of it being both a fantastic and completely shitty health care resource. The VA in Iowa City diagnosed my illness, treated it well and assigned me an extreme hottie as my primary care physician. The VA in Little Rock treated me like an imposition and left such a bad opinion that I almost didn't use the one in Iowa City. The VA in Des Moines and Poplar Bluff have been treating my father for years and other than a few things that could have happened anywhere they have been fine.

Due to my initial experiences, I tend to be skeptical about the US govt tending to health care. I'm not sure that they're qualified.

Aren't most of the problems with the VA due to its funding having been heavily cut since it was set up, though? I know Bush (jr) and Reagan both cut its funding, though I'm not sure about the elder Bush or Clinton. McCain was talking about heavy cuts to it as well, which is hideous coming from somebody who spent seven or eight months of electioneering trading off his military record, frankly.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Archer

That Damned Panda

The point is that the margin of profit in Canada is low and is averaged out by a higher profit margin in the US.
Most companies at the board of directors level have a profit margin in mind for overall operations.
The board doesn't care who has to pay the resulting higher costs to make up the profit lost.

Now we could start at least by getting down to the facts of what profit margin is acceptable and what profit margin is considered too greedy.
But seems nobody wants to ever go there.

IS 10% profit margin fair?
Is 15%
Is 5 % too low

People want to talk about the raw numbers because they get the shock effect and convieniently ignore the money invested in to get that profit out.

They did it to the oil companies and they do it to the drug manufacturing industry as well.

That said Drug Manufacturing has a relatively high margin of about 15% if I recall
But considering the value of the service is 15% too much profit?

quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen

quote:

ORIGINAL: Moonhead

quote:

ORIGINAL: Irishknight

I am all for a properly run health care system. The question is whether the current plan is it or not.

Having been exposed to the VA for years, I've seen instances of it being both a fantastic and completely shitty health care resource. The VA in Iowa City diagnosed my illness, treated it well and assigned me an extreme hottie as my primary care physician. The VA in Little Rock treated me like an imposition and left such a bad opinion that I almost didn't use the one in Iowa City. The VA in Des Moines and Poplar Bluff have been treating my father for years and other than a few things that could have happened anywhere they have been fine.

Due to my initial experiences, I tend to be skeptical about the US govt tending to health care. I'm not sure that they're qualified.

Aren't most of the problems with the VA due to its funding having been heavily cut since it was set up, though? I know Bush (jr) and Reagan both cut its funding, though I'm not sure about the elder Bush or Clinton. McCain was talking about heavy cuts to it as well, which is hideous coming from somebody who spent seven or eight months of electioneering trading off his military record, frankly.

The VA was pretty awful when I got out of the Navy in 1991. I was only eligible for care for service related conditions so I didn't have much contact with the system until about 2003 but the few times I went it appeared things were getting better, not sure when tricare was put in but that seems to have been the beginning of the improvements. Since 2003 I've been getting treatment for an old knee injury that has deteriorated and it is pretty clear that the system is stressed near the breaking point with the influx of severely injured Iraq and Afghanistan vets, particularly the orthopedics and physical therapy departments where I'm getting treatment for my knee. From what I'm told it isn't so much budget cuts as it is that the budgets haven't grown to keep up with the number of veterans who need the services.

quote:

ORIGINAL: rulemylife

quote:

ORIGINAL: Archer

That Damned Panda

The point is that the margin of profit in Canada is low and is averaged out by a higher profit margin in the US.
Most companies at the board of directors level have a profit margin in mind for overall operations.
The board doesn't care who has to pay the resulting higher costs to make up the profit lost.

Now we could start at least by getting down to the facts of what profit margin is acceptable and what profit margin is considered too greedy.
But seems nobody wants to ever go there.

IS 10% profit margin fair?
Is 15%
Is 5 % too low

People want to talk about the raw numbers because they get the shock effect and convieniently ignore the money invested in to get that profit out.

They did it to the oil companies and they do it to the drug manufacturing industry as well.

That said Drug Manufacturing has a relatively high margin of about 15% if I recall
But considering the value of the service is 15% too much profit?

Maybe we "can get down to the facts" of where this argument started.

How many drugs are actually produced and developed in the U.S. as opposed to other countries?

And how how many of those truly are drugs that can be applied to serious conditions rather the drugs that generate profit like keeping your dick hard for four hours?

quote:

ORIGINAL: rulemylife

How many drugs are actually produced and developed in the U.S. as opposed to other countries?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

Moonhead, Pfizer is an American company founded in New York.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

quote:

ORIGINAL: rulemylife

How many drugs are actually produced and developed in the U.S. as opposed to other countries?

Off the top of my head, in recent years America has caught up and is neck and neck with Europe as a whole, but ahead as an individual country.

Anyone who think the drug companies are doing the American public a favour needs to read this link. To suggest they would then sell drugs cheaply to the rest of the world is naive at best.

http://www.actupny.org/reports/drugcosts.html

quote:

ORIGINAL: gift4mistress

Got you with my witty sarcasm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

What do you think?<--- that's what I think.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Archer

Drug companies can be faulted for many things, but they do solve problems and they are a business.

Spending millions on a drug that cures a disease so rare that the resulting drug costs 200,000 a person does nobody any good.

It's a package deal. The opportunity costs of developing a drug have to be weighed against the opportunity costs of developing another drug.