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Comment by rokhayakebe | Hacker News Reader

I, for one, would like to see drugs increase very sharply similarly to what this guy did.

Reason is we need a consumer reform, and not a government reform which is a temporary solution.

The entirety of pharmaceutical R&D is $161 B globaly. If half of Americans were contributing $100 monthly to a pool, we could fund it entirely and make every drug available for free.I would love to see this done outside of the government.

We MUST stop depending on government for Health, and Education. While they intend well (I truly believe they do individually as people), as an aggregate they are not able to solve these issues at scale.

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What sort of organization do you propose would obtain and manage those $100/month contributions, and how would that organization differ from "a government"?

Your tax dollars do not fund drug R&D. Think KickStarter for issues that matter to us.

tons of drug research is abolutely publicly funded, then often sold off to private companies for pennies...

Well then the matter is even worst than I suspected. I am funding drug research just so the government can sell it to a private company that will charge me 100x. Clearly this is rapacious.

Regardless of whether the government currently funds drug R&D, your idea sounds a lot like government-funded R&D, thus my question of how it would be different.

1) We can dictate price: $0.00. 2) We can decide what drugs to develop (i.e. do we need Ibuprofen, Advil, Tylenol, This, That, or do we need the best). 3) When the price is $0.00 we ensure no one dies because they can't afford a drug. 4) When the price is $0.00 well physician can focus on providing you with the best drug, and not the one they get kick back from.

Shall I continue?

This idea does not stop at Pharma. Wherever Gov fails, we can try this.

Sounds just like a government medication R&D scheme plus a government medication purchase plan.

It sounds like you're advocating a community pool of resources to benefit members, which is exactly what government social programs are.

Which government social programs fund the $161B in pharmaceutical R&D? How do you and I have a direct say on how that money is spent?

What we need is a direct competitor to government. I am all for government regulating what is safe/unsafe to consume/use/inject in your body. However I would like for us to fund development and have/give free access to the discoveries.

Fair enough.. Than a B-Corp, Non-Profit, or private member funded CO-OP type organization with a charter?

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