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As prescription drug costs skyrocket in the US, thousands of people are forced to forgo lifesaving medications — all while manufacturers and health care facilities systematically destroy perfectly good, surplus pills. Kiah Williams shares how SIRUM — a nonprofit that delivers unused medications to families who need them most — plans to drive down prescription prices by recycling almost a billion dollars' worth of medications in the next five years. (This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)
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It’s so unreal that people have to choose between medicine and food/rent.
@JP’s Lobster And yes – the US health care is objectively much worse than most developed countries.
In all rankings it is about rank 35-40 (or even worse in some individual points).
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world
So where’s the line drawn? Can’t one make the argument for food OR housing OR clothes to be provided by the government? Those are all required to live too, aren’t they?
@JP’s Lobster You’re overestimating the amount of people, especially from other Western countries, who travel to the US for medical purposes. It mostly comes down to seeking a particular specialist or more likely a particular treatment only available in certain regions. It’s mostly wealthy people from middle-income countries such as China or Turkey who do that sort of thing, those in developed countries and particularly those with access to newer treatments (which are usually rolled out in the US, the EU or Japan first, in that order) will almost certainly never choose to travel the US for treatment even if they can afford to drop the $500,000 to do so (since, of course, they’d be traveling there for specialized treatment in the first place). The US has some of the best medical research in the world for the same reason it has some of the best physicists in the world: it has extremely reputable and well-funded (read: heavily gov. subsidized) educational institutions which draw upon not only the large domestic population but from applicants abroad who are then offered very lucrative career paths once they finish their schooling. It’s got nothing to do with how the healthcare system works and everything with the US’ educational system, the way the government funds R&D and business and immigration laws.
Also, perhaps the US is the largest issuer because it is the largest developed economy in the world? Look up the per capita figures and then get back to us on that, I’m sure you’ll be shocked.
@Himecha’s Jam Also, she’s quick to point out the low income earners and those without insurance are the ones that go without their rx. I’m sure there’s a correlation between low-income earners and the underinsured because in this day in age of Obamcare, there’s absolutely no reason one can’t afford insurance. Income has nothing to do with it, I’d say it’s education too. Those on low-income receive free to little cost healthcare (premium, drugs, and care), among other services the US tax payer subsidizes
@Trystelune Always finish what you start.
I was just talking to a friend of mines last night who can’t afford good health insurance and the free health insurance doesn’t cover her medication at all
Go into some details for us. How much money do they earn a month and what type of medication do they need?
@The Mean Arena How much do you wanna bet that friends is unemployed?
@Chris Fokjohn Well I don’t want to speculate so I gave her the opportunity to clear that up. 🙂
I been doing it for years. Pre-existing Auto-Immune DIsorer/Mental/BRain PTSD/ADHD yet I’m pushed back due to a wave of New patients crying over job loss or a relationship break up. Not saying anyone’s problem is worse than another, but this is a failure in the system. Been pointing me back and forth for years. I gave up on the system. Have a disability hearing soon. Prayers/Vibes welcomed, I send them out to you all regardless. Positive vibes/prayers/thoughts and keep your head up, stay positive as possible, put ego/pride/gree/religion beliefs aside for one second and look at the thing from others’ point of view…. I’m not depressed or anything yet Doctors are pushing these Anti-depressants, Pysch meds quick and like nothing. #Failure #MedicalSystem #Medical
They don’t want to help you. They want you addicted to their meds. It’s how the mental health system works. Once you get on it it’s designed to keep you on it as long as possible.
is this some usa thing that i am to european to understand?
It’s because corporations run the country, and we are nothing but cattle to them.
@Queer Cripple Why is your monthly income only $600? You only make $150 a week?
@The Mean Arena that’s what SSI gives me
@The Mean Arena My mum makes about that much because I’m 17 and suddenly child benefits no longer exists once you become 17 and she has to support both of us on that…I’m glad I live in a country with free healthcare because we would not be able to afford that in our state.
@Mikê’e Stark Why does your mom only make that much? And to the other guy, nice to see they delete my comments with facts.
They demonize you for talking your opiates, Dr don’t want to give to you . How would you do if you could not live a normal life without your meds.
Really good work you’re doing! I know first hand how it feels not to be able to afford your medication and being scared you’re not going to make it. It’s such a hopeless feeling.
I LOVE when you can crack open one of those dumpsters!!!!!!!!! (Sometimes the locks are insane saw-trap things) ugh such a goddamn waste everytime, and there’s always so much I just can’t carry it.
Ma’am, you dont have to have “all the answers” to fix our problems…. Just keep doing what your*e doing with that organ in your skull, and the future will be a beautiful place.
Random fact
The voice actors for Mickey and Minnie Mouse were married in real life.
-The Shades ❤❤
But they always have enough money for lobbyists and campaign donations to protect the gilded empire of Big Pharma.
Amazing, seeing a problem and acting to solve it instead of just complaining on the internet like 99% of people. Great job!!!
It’s amazing that even on a topic such as universal healthcare that is widely accepted as the best application of healthcare by economists, medical experts and bureaucrats even in the United States itself that you still get so many right-wing trolls coming out of the woodwork to mass dislike the video and spam the comments with “socialism bad!”. It’s fine when TED have experts talking about stuff like Mars or the oceans but when it’s an expert talking about something _political_ like health services then suddenly it’s “propaganda” and TED is just pandering to the left, more so when the topic of discussion is something like immigration or economic theory. This woman is literally the co-founder of a medical company specializing in what she is talking about in the video, she is drawing upon examples found in the healthcare systems of the dozens of developed countries sporting universal healthcare that is proven to work, she has years of experience in what she is speaking about and there’s still plenty of dipshits in the comments who’re dismissing her without a second thought. Honestly, imagine being that anti-science.
I’m sure there are trolls but appeals to authority aren’t rebuttals to diverse viewpoints.
This is why some Americans have moved to Europe, much cheaper and more civilized.
I live in Scotland and we get free medicine paid for by the tax payer.
Let’s also talk about how the ‘treatment’ system in the US is a band-aid with no emphasis on prevention or truly reversing any ailments.
Diabetes is a condition that can be treated with diet (lifestyle, not fad diets), yet we’re not told this by doctors because in the US, they have *less than 24 hours of nutritional education*. Instead, the pharmaceutical industry takes advantage of this ignorance, and touts insulin as being basically on par with epipens. They inflate the value of it, even though it will never cure anything. It provides temporary relief, where as learning to manage blood sugars effectively via eating fiber packed foods and cutting out processed junk and excessive fats and animal foods (sorry keto people, you’re on the wrong team) has been shown to effectively reverse diabetes. If you’re struggling, look into whole food plant based diets. Look into SOS free (salt oil sugar, the food additives that create food addiction). Look up dr Alan Goldhamer, dr Michael Gregor, dr Neal Barnard, or if you want a weight loss hub to learn a lot, look up chef AJ. Look up mastering diabetes. Don’t let keto shills guide you through a dark room anymore. Atkins died of a heart attack from his own diet, which was essentially keto. We all know the outcome of pharmaceutical interventions; they rarely result in a patient walking away unscathed. Plant based diets help you break dependency. Unsubscribe from the good news about your bad habits, and be honest with yourself.
Rehab facilities are insurance scams, wherein the vast majority operate on the AA model, which is proven to fail except by those with extraordinary willpower or who are readily accepted into the community. They charge people (to their insurance) hundreds to thousands for random drug tests, have full access to excessive prescription drugs that their doctors dish out at their own discretion, and tend to exacerbate people’s mental health issues or outwardly ignore them and gaslight them. Granted, this depends on the treatment facility, but the vast majority are in it for the insurance money, and rich people generally aren’t going to the ones for people who desperately need help. Addicts need a trusted counselor. Not to be sent off to glorified concentration camps. We need to stop brushing homeless people and addicts under the rug like they don’t exist. America ignores all of its problems until they can’t be ignored anymore.
It’s time for change.
We are over-medicated. Doctors should be like: stop eating and drinking like crap and half of your issues will be null. Get off social media and ride a bike and that mental balance thing will be put in check. Spank your kids and grow a garden just because. That would prove you care about yourself enough to then be medded-out.
Kiah! I’ve never come closer to wanting to nominate someone for a humanitarian award.
I feel a lot better about donating my old prescriptions now.
1:28 my entire life changed thanks to, *p a i d t o b e h o m e .c o m*
Weird; I have to decide every couple months if I’m going to live for the next couple months, and make a run out of state to go get cannibus to eat food and sleep. Otherwise its 2 days and a wake up before I take my own life.
We all got problems, and I hope those people (like my parents) can get their meds without having problems.
I’d just like America to full fill the promises its made to me and my siblings.
I appreciate her effort but having a healthcare system based on using the excess of the wealthy to fill the needs of the poor isn’t a good solution, it’s piecemeal at best. It can’t guarantee what people need will be available. It could also be called trickle down medicine. And if you think trickle down economics works, google historical wages since 1980. Inflation adjusted, wages are flat. There is a solution the entire rest of the developed world used. Sadly, too many Americans are drinking cold war koolaid for us to do it.