[HN Gopher] California aims to make its own insulin brand to low...
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California aims to make its own insulin brand to lower price
Author : t_a_v_i_s
Score : 21 points
Date : 2022-08-01 20:13 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (apnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (apnews.com)
| OrangeMonkey wrote:
| Legitimate question - how is the state allowed to compete with
| private merchants to sell a product?
|
| It is a market that is likely going to have multiple competitors
| with the patent expiring, and those competitors are not likely to
| succeed if they compete against a state with a bottomless
| pocketbook. It appears likely this would result in less
| competition and - over a long run - higher prices?
|
| Not trolling, I am genuinely confused how this is supposed to
| work.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| The state of California is simply another entity in the market.
| As long as they don't use illegal means to establish market
| position (i.e., coercion, etc.), there are no laws against them
| competing with private markets.
|
| And in this particular case, the reason that California is
| jumping into the market is because the private merchants have
| artificially increased prices to pad their profits and pay
| their executives, at the expense of thousands of people who are
| now struggling to afford an essential (and a historically
| ridiculously cheap) medication.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| The state does many things that could theoretically be provided
| by private companies. The state also does not exist to serve
| companies and the richest, it exists to serve all the people
| equally. It often goes the other way around, which is just
| accepted as normal.
| throwawaymanbot wrote:
| This is how Europe works. And it works well, and the reason the
| US pays WAAAY more for items like this. The US also allows
| price gouging of course..
|
| No sympathy for those who want to gouge ill people. About time,
| I hope the rest of America gets to buy cheaper insulin. Saying
| otherwise is a disgrace
| zeruch wrote:
| The same way its allowed to provide any other product or
| service, like security (police), transportation (roads), etc.
|
| There is no reason it can't offer other things, and often in
| many other places, do. The state is perfectly capable of doing
| things effectively, but we've conditioned ourselves to believe
| it can't because corporate America has wanted it that way due
| to the sheer terror of being out-managed by the state/municipal
| option (they can't gouge as flagrantly or impose endless layers
| of their own bureaucratic middle men, so they accuse the
| government via the dumbest projection).
|
| The state sucks for many reasons, but often for the same
| reasons corporations do; bad leadership and defection from
| purpose, often in the process of avoiding transparency. Either
| can suck, and picking one over the other just because of an
| ideological crutch is daft.
| codemonkey-zeta wrote:
| Cynical take would be it's pretense for future nationalization
| of industry.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| The prison industry would be a good start. My point is that
| the US in little danger of the state nationalizing
| industries, but there are real cases of privatizing state
| functions.
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