An American woman exposed the huge difference in drug prices. He got a medicine worth $1,000 in America for just $25 in India. The incident has sparked a debate over America’s expensive health system and India’s cheap generic drugs.
When an American woman saw the difference in the prices of the same medicine available in America and India, she was shocked. The woman made a video and told that the medicine which was available for 1,000 dollars (about Rs 95,000) in America, when ordered from India, she got it for only 25 dollars (about Rs 2,300). Since this video, an online debate has erupted regarding affordable health services.
This woman named Victoria shared her experience on Instagram. Taking the medicine in hand, he expressed surprise at the huge price difference. He called it an example of America’s poor healthcare system. Victoria said she only needed six pills, but her insurance company refused to cover the cost of the medicine. Therefore he had to pay the entire price from his own pocket. “For this medicine, I would have had to pay $1,000 out of my own pocket in the US, but I bought it for $25. Yes, $1,000 for just six small pills, because my insurance was not covering it,” he said in the video.
Reluctant to spend such a large sum, Victoria asked her doctor about other options. According to him, the doctor advised him to order the medicine through a Canadian pharmacy, which could source the medicine directly from an Indian manufacturer. Even then he expected the drug to cost several hundred dollars. But when she was told the price, she was shocked. “They told me the price was $25. $10 for the medicine and $15 for shipping. International shipping charged directly from the manufacturer in India to me,” he said.
This huge difference forced Victoria to wonder why the price of the same medicine is so high in America. In a sharp criticism of the American healthcare system, he called it “a joke” and said patients were being unfairly burdened with high costs. She said, “We are being completely scammed. What do you mean it was supposed to cost a thousand dollars? And I was only able to pay $10 for the medicine.”
Victoria also raised questions about where the extra costs are going, saying ordinary people often have to pay the price for shortcomings in the healthcare system and inflated prices. His video quickly went viral. Many expressed similar frustrations over rising drug prices and insurance barriers in the US. At the same time, many people pointed towards India’s huge generic drug industry, which has made its mark across the world for manufacturing cheap medicines on a large scale.