[0] https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/america-is-running-out-of-...
I'm not sure this amount can be negligible even if we were able to make the system economically efficient such that no entities have outsized profit margins.
Some things about modern medicine are just expensive. Discovering a new drug and bringing it to market takes a long time and probably has to if we want drugs that work and don't do more harm than good. Growing monoclonal antibodies, which are wonderdrugs for certain conditions, is a resource-intensive process. Even more mundane stuff is expensive. Surgery requires a team of highly skilled professionals. An MRI machine is expensive to own and operate.
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Essentially the same arguments apply to semiconductors as medicine yet I can buy an iPhone for <$2k and still give Apple an extremely generous margin on it. That wonderdrug might cost thousands more despite having a fraction of the people involved in its design/manufacturing, most being paid far less. Scale is part of it, but things like insulin or epinephrine are being produced by the ton with simple processes and still cost hundreds of dollars a year for people. It's not certification either, as other countries don't have the same issues or pay the same high prices.
Benralizumab and tebentafusp are probably very expensive to make and took a lot of work to develop and test. Not very many people need them, but the people who do are likely to die horribly without them.
Start with destroying pharma benefit managers and Medicare Advantage, and continue hacking and slashing based on cost/time/benefit ratio.
https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/medicare-health-insura... | https://archive.is/de2f3 (“Insurers Pocketed $50 Billion From Medicare for Diseases No Doctor Treated”)
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/inside-the-mafia-of-pharm... (“Inside the Mafia of Pharma Pricing”)
“Your margin is our opportunity.”
Countries with successful healthcare institutions use purchasing controls to negotiate.
They dont rely on the charity or good nature of suppliers.
Instead, they say "thats too expensive, lower the price or we will take the option 90% as good for 10% the cost".
We don't blame them, but without any control we have the highest prices and not so good overall results. Add to that Trump with his industry 'self regulation' idea and you know what's coming...