But remember who the payer is for drugs, it's generally the insurance company not the patient. Insurance companies negotiate different costs to n behalf of their members.

If you don't have insurance you just default to the list price.

However that is changing. I can't remember the company, but one pharmacy is starting a cash pay discount program.

Restaurants pay less for meat than you and I do. Trucking companies pay less for diesel than you or I would.

you do realize that different demographics pay different prices, right? Buy food at whole foods v. k-mart. Buy spices in this department or that ethnic department. Buy gasoline in Marin, California, or Topeka, KS.