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Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

The audacity of pedaling a drug pricetag of $22,000 to solve someone being homeless when government safetynets won't even offer a fraction of that.

It will probably be sold for $220 in other countries.

But hopefully the compounding pharmacies and anti-pharma hacking collectives will solve the pricetag problem here.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-to-make-your-own-medicin...

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Wait till Europe gets generics, it will cost less than $5 per month. My MS medication would cost me $8k per month in the US, costs me $2 here.

It would cost you $2 with insurance in the US too. It’s a terrible system, it doesn’t make sense, but you have to understand that approximately no one pays the list price for prescription drugs - even people without insurance.

What about those ketamine sessions for depression that cost thousands per session?

What medication?

Both dimethyl-fumarate and natalizumab are very expensive, well, MS medications are expensive in general.

Thanks. I have a relative who was recently diagnosed and I heard their first treatment was very expensive (an order of magnitude more than 8k). I was curious what medication cost 8k, as finding the true cost for drugs is often quite difficult in the US.

Most MS medications are very expensive at market price, unfortunately. :/ I would love to move to the US (because of friends), but I am afraid I will not be able to get my MS medication for ~$2 but $8k or more which I would not be able to afford. I want to switch to Tysabri (once a month injection), but it costs $1500 here at market price where I am in Eastern Europe, but I can get it for $2. In the US, it says: "The cost for Tysabri (300 mg/15 mL) intravenous concentrate is around $8,654 for a supply of 15 milliliters" (once a month supply). It does not matter though, even dimethyl-fumarate costs just as much (and is much weaker).

So... needless to say, I am lost.

Healthcare in the US is an elite graft, the system will pay the full price. That is actually why prices are so high and hospitals try to keep price tags a secret, because the bill does get paid, and all those executives and investors and even the insurance companies all make off with riches, increasingly paid for by the public. The real crime is setting up indigent people now using drugs on the street to become a massive market for psychiatric medication on the pretense of a pseudo-scientific "disorders" like schizophrenia.

> pseudo-scientific "disorders" like schizophrenia.

Are you saying you don’t believe in schizophrenia?

The US will do anything and everything to solve homelessness as long as it doesn't actually involve building more homes or giving homes to people.

I mean that in a fully genuine way. Just look at how much money gets set on fire cycling the same homeless people in and out of jails and emergency rooms and you can see that nobody actually cares about the amount of money being spent, but only that homes themselves aren't easier to get.

The US simply needs to undo the zoning laws, parking minimums, and setback requirements that make it illegal to build affordable housing.

First, you need a politician to say: "your home is not an investment, it's an asset."

They would be flayed. Might as well just belt out a "Dean scream" at a live event.

What qualifies to you as a home? Is it “nice”? Fully finished? Large? In a nice area? In an area with good weather? In good repair?

In short, a couple of hundred square feet with decent temperatures, a sturdy lock, and basic facilities. I believe that the de facto illegalization of SROs in US cities is one of the more prominent factors when it comes to both invisibly and visibly homeless populations.

We tore down all the slums because they were unhealthy and dangerous, and then shoved all the former tenants onto the streets.

Same basic story as asylums.

I tend to agree. Unfortunately, such places are illegal to build and rent.

School Resource Officers???

What are SROs?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-room_occupancy

It's a category that's been mostly legislated out of existence in the US today.

imagine thinking that the "homelessness" crisis is only lack of homes.

go talk to a sample and you'll quickly find out it ain't the lack of home.

The point of my comment, in response to its parent, is that people in the US are willing to support immense amounts of money being spent on the homeless as long as it doesn't involve housing anyone.

I think the institutional structure of most US states and cities wouldn't blink at spend huge amounts on schizophrenia drugs as long as it doesn't involve any kind of inpatient treatment (forced or not) that would put a roof over anyone's head.

For 20-30% of people it is a lack of an affordable home.

If building more homes solves 30% of the problem and this drug solves another 10%, that is 40% of homeless taken care of.

That would be a huge victory that would save hundreds of thousands of lives.

The core issue with homelessness is one of how our modern capitalist socieites are laid out.

In order to have a life, you must have a job. This is the underlying assumption that fuels everything. This assumption has a critical flaw: not everyone can have a job.

For some segments of the population, we just "bolt on" fixes to this fundamental problem. 401k's so that workers may still get their money when they no longer work. Foster care, so that abandoned babies who cannot work can still live.

For the severely mentally ill and drug addled, we haven't figured it out. The reality is these people cannot work a job and most will never be able to work steadily. Advancements in drugs may help, but even then there will always be some segment of the population who simply cannot work.

Previously, we took an "out of sight, out of mind" approach. Institutionalize these people. It's cheap, particularly if we treat them like dogs. We've evolved and realized such an approach is inhuman and evil. Now, though, what do we do?

If these people had a basic income available, they could at least pay to help themselves. This isn't a silver bullet, but I believe it's better than the current problem we have.

The true solution is fixing the fundamental problem modern society has: everyone has to work. This is really hard.

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