Pessimism v. Optimism

[Jester]

Edit: Also, I found this article on misrepresentation of Drug company profits helpful. 15% to 18% is not obscene.

You're correcting a mistake I didn't make. My link said 16.5%, right in line with yours. Variance is one thing, but that's still a very profitable industry. If that was just legitimate profits, I would have no problem with it. But much of it is rents, accumulated from the bizarre US system, which generates major incentives to overperscribe, and almost no ability for bargaining at the provider level.

For pharmaceutical companies, money could be saved by reducing their rents. For HMOs, money could be saved by simply eliminating that entire step in the process.

-Jester