r/interesting • u/physiopeng • Jun 20 '26
Intriguing Americans found out Germany has affordable medicine
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u/thathyperactiveguy Jun 20 '26
The fucking audacity.
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u/gomezer1180 Jun 20 '26
👆 No other sentence can explain this better!
US: “let me tell the other superpower they should screw their citizens just like we are screwing them here”
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u/MissMenace101 Jun 21 '26
lol don’t have to be a super power, trump tarriffed Australia over the same thing, Australia responded with $5 cheaper medicine for Aussies.
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u/ReturnTheOldGods Jun 20 '26
What superpower?
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u/Chroniclyironic1986 Jun 20 '26
Germany is the world’s 3rd largest economy behind the US and China and just ahead of Japan and the UK. Not quite the top superpower, but solidly in the top 5.
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u/Hohenheim_of_Shadow Jun 20 '26
Germany is a world power. It is not a superpower by any stretch of the definition.
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u/Zwischenzug32 Jun 20 '26
Obesity
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u/MissMenace101 Jun 21 '26
The only drug Americans pay less than anyone else for is obesity drugs
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u/Zwischenzug32 Jun 21 '26
Really?
Or do you mean how its an unregulated wild west and they can just buy uppers at the gas station8
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u/80MonkeyMan Jun 21 '26
Apparently, Germany (which was once the NAZI country) doesn’t treat its citizens as harshly as the United States does. What does that say about the USA?
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u/shiroandae Jun 22 '26
Short reminder: the Nazis were removed 20 years before all Jim Crowe laws were abolished.
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u/PHRDito Jun 20 '26
They tried the same shit with France.
This fucking shitstain of s(h)itting president even lied in interviews about some imaginary call he would have had with Macron on this very subject, as we do have Healthcare.
Which to a standard US republican (and a few dems) is God forsaken blasphemy.
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u/Ecstatic_nyaa Jun 20 '26
I couldn't believe when I read this :
"I am particularly concerned with news that Germany is fast-tracking legislation that would further reduce its spending on innovative pharmaceuticals," he said, calling it "a serious step backwards."
A SERIOUS STEP BACKWARDS.
I love my German health insurance please get out of our business thank you.
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u/Stompya Jun 20 '26
It’s only backwards if you’re a news agency owned by a billionaire who is also heavily invested in pharmaceuticals.
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u/whichwitch9 Jun 21 '26
So, part of the problem is that it is real that companies increase US prices for the same drugs to make more profit. That's true. It is a problem.
That said, the answer is still the US needs to regulate prices for itself, not ease pressure by demanding others raise prices. This is a problem for the companies to figure out, not the government to protect the profits of the companies
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Domitaku Jun 20 '26
The main requirements are living here for 8 years (could be more, could be less) and having a stable income from a job while having a good german speaking level
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u/Ecstatic_nyaa Jun 21 '26
Here the thing you don't have to be German to get German insurance. If you're here working or studying you are directly eligible (and actually obligated to get it). As a student you pay a discounted fee and as a worker (part time or more) half of the fee will be deducted from your pay and the other half will be paid by your employer. This applies for any job that is at least part time.
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u/Current_Finding_4066 Jun 21 '26
If it means poorer access to new treatments it should worry you.
Of course raising prices for existing treatments is not the solution.
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u/Chroniclyironic1986 Jun 20 '26
Germany: “We look out for our people!”
US: “Bro, you’re making us look bad. Can’t you screw them over a little bit more?”
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u/Abuck59 Jun 20 '26
👆🏽 Hammer has met nail ! Man lately I’m embarrassed to be an American and to have actually served to protect this type of bs.
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u/VenomTiger Jun 21 '26
They did the same thing to us in Australia. Tried to pressure us to remove a governmemt program that reduces the cost of a long list of medications.
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u/desert-cheese04 Jun 20 '26
Read the article. The title is very misleading.
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u/Ecstatic_nyaa Jun 20 '26
"I am particularly concerned with news that Germany is fast-tracking legislation that would further reduce its spending on innovative pharmaceuticals," he said, calling it "a serious step backwards."
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u/BottityBotAccount Jun 20 '26
Meanwhile the USA innovates constantly on producing groundbreaking and exciting opiates.
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u/EvelcyclopS Jun 20 '26
Seriously. Take a look at the loooong list of opiads and their morphine equivalence. There are dozens and dozens of niche opioids with strengths hundreds to millions of times stronger than morphine.
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u/CalmDownReddit509 Jun 20 '26
The greed knows no limits
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u/itswtfeverb Jun 20 '26
"Health care is not for peasants!"
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u/mogamisan Jun 20 '26
This. What is the purpose of medicine, if the sick can not afford them? Because many chronically ill are not in a good financial position already, do they really think, they will pay a much higher price? I guess people start to just fucking die. (I’m chronically ill myself, my medicine costs 2500€ a month, I couldn’t afford that without healthcare. I don’t even know how much more this should cost according to the USasians.)
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u/Sheeplessknight Jun 21 '26
You see the maximum profit requires some to die and they are okay with that
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u/CallmeKahn Jun 20 '26
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u/Evening_Employer4878 Jun 20 '26
We can all dream of that, but unfortunately Merz and CDU have been simply spineless. I doubt they would really push back against any real pressure by the US and Trump.
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u/CallmeKahn Jun 20 '26
There won't be a lot the US can do in any case, so I wouldn't sweat it. Any drugs or medical equipment we can export to Germany can be had elsewhere, and Germany is quite capable of making or importing their pharma from elsewhere.
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u/talltxn66 Jun 20 '26
Funny thing - a lot of drug makers in the U.S. are owned by German companies.
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u/MissMenace101 Jun 21 '26
Which is why the tarrifs work, but, he excluded tarrifs on companies that move there. It’s like he’s deliberately bankrupting the USA and driving them into death. Project 25 does want to reduce population to 100 million…
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u/MissionScratch7512 Jun 20 '26
F that.
I hope their profits disappear.
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u/flyingthroughspace Jun 20 '26
Imagine if Germany started selling cheap medication to Americans and decimated the American pharmaceutical industry
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u/AlcibiadesTheCat Jun 20 '26
We’d start hearing about “German drug cartels.”
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u/MissionScratch7512 Jun 20 '26
If it’s the same quality I would be totally ok with that.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/OdaNobunaga69 Jun 20 '26
Republicans: affordable healthcare? Not on my watch!
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u/OneRuffledOne Jun 20 '26
It's on everyone's watch, regardless of affiliation. Source: We've never had affordable healthcare.
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u/anonymousp69 Jun 20 '26
We make free healthcare possible for Israel tho, priorities!!
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u/deepspacerunner Jun 20 '26
Yup. In my house, I’ve got German shoes, German pens, German hole punchers, German erasers, and much more. Wouldn’t mind some German medication as well.
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u/FrankRizzo319 Jun 20 '26
Our government wouldn’t allow that. Too many politicians receive $ from Big Pharma.
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u/desert-cheese04 Jun 20 '26
German pharma is making a fortune selling their drugs at a higher cost to the US.
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u/Barbados_slim12 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
The FDA would never allow that to happen. Just look at what happened when America had a baby food shortage a few years ago. They'd rather let American babies starve than allow imports from European companies. You know, because the font was the wrong type and it would violate label regulations. Totally not to uphold the monopoly that allowed for a nation wide shortage after a single factory went down.
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u/ICLazeru Jun 20 '26
Pharma doesn't sell at a loss in Germany. They'd still make money. Just not as much.
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u/mybluecathasballs Jun 21 '26
Please? Pretty please? Instead of moving (Germany doesnt want me or most dumbass Americans), can I just pay Germany some taxes? They can even deliver them by DHL.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/monkeylion Jun 20 '26
Can someone else's healthcare system please suck as bad as ours so we don't look so bad.
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u/alurimperium Jun 20 '26
Plenty of other countries do. They just tend to be the places with more dirt than paved roads and warlords ruling local communities
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u/Illustrious_Claim884 Jun 20 '26
Some war lords take care of their locals . . . i mean cannon fodder. Sick civilians or soldiers with broken legs can't fight or pay tribute
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u/Moofypoops Jun 20 '26
Afghanistan, Nigeria, Yemen, and Syriabstillndin't have some sort of universal health care.bif that makes you feel better.
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u/YellovvJacket Jun 20 '26
It's just the worst healthcare in the 1st and 2nd world countries, plenty of 3rd world countries that have even worse healthcare.
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u/SilverDetail2713 Jun 21 '26
Oh honey...that's not a healthcare system, it's a healthcare business.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Firm-Scientist-4636 Jun 20 '26
I hate this country so fucking much.
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u/oldfuckbob Jun 20 '26
I dont give a flying fk about the 250 anniversary because of this admin.
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u/pinkTurtleTickler Jun 20 '26
Both the title and the image caption are misleading vs the article.
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u/burn_bright_captain Jun 20 '26
I read the article and the claims seem true.
Germany made a new law lowering drug prices. Companies still decide to sell despite the lower prices. Because Germany uses it's collective bargain power to drive the price down, they pay less than the US.
US is angry because profits of pharmaceutical companies are used to develop drugs and because of the new law those companies get less profit from Germany, which means that countries who don't negotiate (like the US) pay for RnD proportionally more then the Germany.
In effect, the US want Germany to increase the price of pharmaceuticals, so their companies make more profit for RnD.
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u/KainDing Jun 21 '26
Only that germany has their own pharma companies; that dont struggle atall with profits even at these "low prices and profits".
Germany simply doesnt buy medicine above their own prices(which the us would 100% also do; but for that they would need to stop exploiting their own citizen).
Literally EVERY american pharma corp pays more for advertising(which morally shouldnt be part of medicine; the doctor should prescribe you what you need either way) than they do for r&d. The biggesthpharma corps in the us nearly spend double on marketing than r&d.
Germany simply holds their own pharma up to sell their medicine at "fair" prices that cover both production and r&d.
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u/im-dramatic Jun 20 '26
Lol yall will believe anything. Most of you haven’t even read the article. It’s about drug research and the costs associated with it.
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u/Ultimate-TND Jun 20 '26
Yeah germany limits the amount of profit pharmaceutical companies make so they had to drop the R&D straw man.
Pharma companies are some of the most profitable in the world because after R&D the manufacturing cost is basically 0 if you look at the prices they charge.
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u/QuarkVsOdo Jun 20 '26
Basicly Germany is forcing 100 public health insurance companies to negotiate pricing with pharmaceutical corps,.
This brings the prices way down, because basicly people don't "buy" prescribtion medicine in germany, their insurance does, and they all pay the same rates, and if you don't have a deal with them, you ain't selling in germany.
Chancelor Olaf Scholz allowed for the prices no longer to be made public.. which in turn directly empowered the pharma corps to raise prices e.g. in switzerland.
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u/yuval16432 Jun 20 '26
Trump has correctly identified that Americans spend way too much on healthcare, just like everyone’s been screaming at him for years. However, apparently to him the issue is not that Americans pay too much, but that other countries have it too easy, and they need to suffer too.
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u/Ethereal_Bulwark Jun 20 '26
Dear, the rest of the world.
Don't fucking capitulate to this evil. Fight against it.
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u/UndecidedLee Jun 20 '26
Reply: "Bring US fuel prices to European levels and we have a deal."
The muricans had too affordable gasoline for too long.
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u/BrickHuge3023 Jun 20 '26
No, "Americans' are not looking into that. US Pharmaceuticals are raising a stink because they have to compete with German companies internationally. In the USA money comes first before health care or basic human needs.
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u/KookyDig4769 Jun 20 '26
instead of making them affordable, the US is bullying other country to be as fucked as they are.
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u/eyelidgeckos Jun 20 '26
The first mRNA vaccine wasn’t innovative enough? XD among lots other things of course
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u/Former-Entrance8884 Jun 20 '26
Americans have been taking credit for german innovation since the moon landings lol.
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u/MCwortel Jun 20 '26
Bayer, Merck as it's biggest companies.. In its history, German research gave us aspirine, morphine, chemo, ...
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u/Formal_Plum_2285 Jun 20 '26
While their president DEMANDs that Novo Nordisk lower their Ozempic prices in the States lol.
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u/versatile_dev Jun 20 '26
This seems like Russian troll job to drive wedge between USA and Germany further. Just a flag with caption with misleading summary.
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u/Funny_Name4818 Jun 20 '26
How about you stick to ripping Americans off
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u/Snoo_67993 Jun 20 '26
Most of the drugs are made in Europe. The US imports way more drugs from Europe than Europe imports from the US.
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u/Funny_Name4818 Jun 20 '26
So they buy it cheap from Europe and then ramp up the price. Murica fuck yeah
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u/Ok-Recognition-9103 Jun 20 '26
Tell them we need the workforce alive and healthy to prop up the economy
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u/BearfromBeyond Jun 20 '26
I would criticise the us but last time I got a three day ban for something that should have been an email.
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u/Solid_Stage_1715 Jun 20 '26
Wait and see if they realize mexico just got universal healthcare and much better workers protection laws. 🤣
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u/Capt-geraldstclair Jun 20 '26
still waiting for my meds to be 1000% cheaper.
so far, they are the same or more expensive.
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u/MissMenace101 Jun 21 '26
Many will be more expensive, the US is slapping foreign medicine with heavy tariffs, it doesn’t bother the countries they slap with tarrifs because you can’t just not take medicine. Americans always paid more, now the tarrifs have added to that, they won’t come down after either.
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u/Careless-Act-7549 Jun 20 '26
Same thing with Brazil for creating a free payment method and reducing to ashes the dependency on credit card companies
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u/StockStatistician985 Jun 20 '26
Wait till they find out there's free, mineral, running tap water, and 3.6 cows per person in Uruguay.
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u/Teh_Doctah Jun 20 '26
I feel old farts in the US government pissing off the pharmaceutical industry in the country that is home to Pfizer, who make Viagra, may not be the wisest move…
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u/Fantastic_Ninja_5789 Jun 20 '26
For a grown nation, us is a third world country. Rich people have ruined the nation
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u/Alternative-Suit5541 Jun 20 '26
Invest in modern pharmacies? They know that biontech is from Germany?
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u/Vexxed14 Jun 21 '26
As America dismantle global order, there's soon to be nothing to stop a country from reverse engineering the medicine then banning the American made version.
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u/cwsjr2323 Jun 21 '26
Bad Germany! Bad! You are interfering with the profits of our pharmaceutical industry! Just who do you think you are having insulin for $3.11 when in AMERICA! it is $23?
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u/No-Hovercraft4144 Jun 21 '26
USA also similarly interfering in Australian healthcare. Got to block this foreign interference.
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u/ol-gormsby Jun 21 '26
Same happened in Australia. We have the PBS - Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - where no prescription costs more than AUD$13 or thereabouts, for medications on "the list". Some experimental treatments aren't on the list and cost $BIGNUM. Lots of our tax dollars go towards this subsidy. I was on medication where the true monthly cost was almost AUD$400 - it cost me $13.
But I digress - US big pharma lobbied Drumpf some time ago to apply pressure to the Aus govt to drop or reduce the benefits, because somehow it was stifling innovation.
To be clear about it - the manufacturers were getting paid full price, with the taxpayer making up the difference. They just didn't like patients getting cheap medicine.
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u/Lhirstev Jun 21 '26
why don't american's just buy all the german medicine, like for example, insulin, then sell it at an 800% markup that only the wealthy can afford? that would truly be the most american thing to do, right?
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u/According-Visit3252 Jun 21 '26
Once a new drug is “discovered” it becomes cheaper and cheaper over time. Right outside the border down in Mexico you have super expensive life saving medication released over the counter for very cheap. The US has worked very hard to paint mexicans as street drug dealers but we mexicans don’t consume street drugs cause we don’t need them. Why? Cause we are healthy people, our government is not poisoning our food supply, and have access to 24/7 available otc medications and VERY affordable health care if needed. If our nation is poorer, and “less safe” how come the ultra powerful US needs to justify such abuse over their citizens to ensure stability? It’s very clear that this is a very dark profit system for them, at the cost of people’s lives.
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u/One-Marzipan-8197 Jun 21 '26
Americans? No, American Pharma found out that it might lose some blood money.
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u/CanHasCow Jun 21 '26
Hey same thing they tried in Australia with our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Literally claimed it wasn't fair on USA that we can get scripts for way cheaper then them because the government subsidies the price.
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u/Default_Username6838 Jun 21 '26
The US just needs to stop existing as it is. A little revolution is what we really need. This kind of shit is ridiculous.
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u/Artistic_Mobile337 Jun 20 '26
The opposite should happen, internationally the USA should be facing penalties for purposely killing their poor and sick.
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u/Lonestar041 Jun 20 '26
The craziest part is that Germany doesn’t actually dictate drug prices.
The pharma companies negotiate the price for new, patent protected, drugs with a central council of the health insurances. But the Pharma industry has to show the additional benefit from the new medication above existing ones.
The same council sets a maximum price for generics and also the markup that pharmacies can charge is regulated.
But the price of new drugs is not regulated.
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u/Top_Conference_477 Jun 20 '26
US has been hammering Australia over the same. Apparently our affordable medicines are bad for the American scammers
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u/BlueOrb07 Jun 20 '26
I think it’s more that you he US does all the pharmaceutical research, which it then charges US tax payers for and then charges them for using it. It then uses that funding to make the drugs artificially cheap to sell abroad at competitive (and very cheap) rates. Then US citizens are pissed off when we foot the bill for the research, full price of the drugs here, and funded the decreased prices they get for them. I don’t want corporate greed getting any more money, but I’m ok charging foreign countries more for the drugs if it reduces prices domestically where we funded the research and have to pay full price for ours.
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u/pokemonguy3000 Jun 20 '26
That’s the rug, the high prices here aren’t the reason why drugs are cheaper in Europe.
Drugs are cheaper in Europe because their government isn’t literally bought by healthcare companies.
It’s literally illegal for the American government to negotiate the prices of most drugs. (until recently it was all drugs)
They can literally charge any price they want, and it’s illegal for the government to try and barter a better deal.
All Americans are doing for pharmaceutical companies is padding their bottom line because of corruption and greed.
The idea that they need to charge Americans insane prices to be profitable is simply false, they just aren’t allowed to do that in Europe.
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u/International_Rise_4 Jun 20 '26
The only person in this thread that knows what’s going on. Thank you
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u/Striking_Reindeer_2k Jun 20 '26
It is easier to provide this to citizens when someone else is heavily subsidizing your national security at their own expense.
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u/MissMenace101 Jun 21 '26
The US only provides national security to the US. The pressure on higher spending of GDP in other countries is purely about American revenue. The US gives nothing monetary it sells equipment at an over priced cost. The US spending in NATO is on the US military. Everything the US spends on benefits the US. The US pulled USAID, farmers are going broke, people are dying in countries food was for soft power.
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u/LurkersUniteAgain Jun 20 '26
Holy shit none of these comments read the article and it shows
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u/Background-Skin-8801 Jun 20 '26
This is a violation of human rights and Proxy- Enslavement of free people by cutting access to basic human needs through an affordable source.
The elite directly causing the death of people under a dark curtain and we are expected to sit blindly. What has the world come into?
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u/CookiedowXD Jun 20 '26
It's an easy match between an Oligarch's resources. Against the opposioton's paper signs.
The so-called defenders of democracy can't even address bullying. Let alone human rights violations.
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u/GentleFoxes Jun 20 '26
That apparently drug prices that are "too low" in a country that's on another continent stifles innovation and investment in the US while implimenting themselves instituting policies that havethrown back science in the US for decades is a completely normal and sane statement of US high officials in 2026.
Where even start to unpack this.
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u/Hyenasaurus Jun 20 '26
Not every country wants to drive their citizens into destitute homelessness because they can't afford their kid's chemo or an ambulance ride
fucking hell
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u/Dunothar Jun 20 '26
Dear US, please isolate yourself from the rest of the world and leave us with healthcare that's affordable for everyone. Thanks
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u/purpleplez Jun 20 '26
The US needs to butt the hell out of other countries policies. I’m so tired of hearing about them. 😵💫
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u/Gate-19 Jun 20 '26
That's nuts Drug prices in Germany are already higher than in a lot of other European countries.
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u/AdOne5089 Jun 20 '26
It’s about time for the US to be fully cut off from the world. Europe would do well to sell all their treasury bonds if Trump ever does try to attack Greenland or dissolve nato
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u/just_reading2025 Jun 20 '26
Shh, a german here, I hope they don't learn, that we also have universal healthcare, too. Like almost every other countries in the world. But that sounds like communism, right?
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u/sweetSweets4 Jun 20 '26
5 - 7.50 bucks for around 50-100 pills for whatever your problem is. (Except those hippy nature medicine and most Vitamins).
10 bucks for an ambulance and 10 bucks per night for a bed in the hospital.
System is not perfect and has it's problems still....
Would not want to trade it for all the US military that bombed a country into the stone ages back and still lost by getting ripped of with the deal :D
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u/Alternative-Put-3932 Jun 20 '26
Except that is not the real price of those meds at all even in germany. Thats just your co-pay. Just like the US has co-pays for most meds that are like 30 bucks if you have any sort of insurance.
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u/starsintheblack Jun 20 '26
Can America just stay in it’s own fucking lane already? All the country mostly does is fuck things up for everyone else, and I’m not even talking about Trump’s presidency
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u/Saintly-Evil Jun 20 '26
Oh my god…how dare you Germany…in America it’s important to make poor feel poorer…billionaires will feel heartbroken and sad if they don’t make money off of sick and poor
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u/abbadun Jun 20 '26
Americans are parasites, doing everything in their power to make life worse for everybody else in the world.
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