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    Back to To the Point

    To the Point

    Can politics cure the high cost of drugs?

    EpiPens are the poster child for vast increases in the price of familiar medications. Many people carry them for emergency treatment of allergic reactions that can be life threatening. So, when the Mylan Company raised the price of two EpiPens from $100 $614 it made big news. Turns out, it's the tip of the iceberg.

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    By Warren Olney • Sep 13, 2016 • 32m Listen

    EpiPens are the poster child for vast increases in the price of familiar medications. Many people carry them for emergency treatment of allergic reactions that can be life threatening. So, when the Mylan Company raised the price of two EpiPens from $100 $614 it made big news. Turns out, it's the tip of the iceberg. Drug prices are on the rise and desperately ill people are often those hit by bills they never expected. Other countries have established price controls for life-or-death medications, but America's system is so complex it defies understanding. Drug and insurance companies, hospitals and doctors engage in secret negotiations, while various middlemen get cuts of the action. And, who's paying for those expensive ads on TV? Patients. Are the presidential campaigns offering any realistic solutions?

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Warren Olney

      former KCRW broadcaster

    • KCRW placeholder

      Sáša Woodruff

      Producer, 'To the Point'

    • KCRW placeholder

      Paul von Zielbauer

      Co-founder of Geezer magazine, former producer for To the Point and Which Way LA?; former reporter for the New York Times

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Jenny Hamel

      KCRW

    • KCRW placeholder

      Katie Thomas

      New York Times reporter covering health care and the drug industry

    • KCRW placeholder

      Erin Fox

      University of Utah Health Care

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      Thomas Stossel

      Brigham and Women's Hospital

      NewsNationalPolitics
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