that’s not my bag, baby
amount Medicare spent last year on penis pumps so that old men can stand at attention: $21 million
average price/ pump Medicare paid: $450
cost of the identical pump online: $108
(via)
Three questions:
1) Unless the erections are somehow going to be used in interstate commerce, where, exactly, does the federal government get the authority to spend a single dime on penis pumps?
2) How, exactly, does the government spend 4.5 times as much as the market price for a penis pump? To the best of my knowledge, such devices neither drop bombs, exit the atmosphere, or hire the children of political donors, and thus would seem to be immune to the usual causes of government price inflation.
3) Ewww, ewww, eww.
(Note, OK, technically, that’s just two questions.)
November 30th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Just talking out of hand here, are these both the internet-famous external tube pumps, or the internal two-reservoir stiffeners? I’d be hard-pressed to conceive of a urologist prescribing one of the ‘John Holmes’ external models, from what I’ve heard of them.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Re: #2; The $450 probably includes the wages for each person involved in pushing paperwork around to approve purchase of and delivery to the patient.
Too bad this service couldn’t be opened up to private bidding; imagine how much one could make by providing the same service for just half of what Medicare spends?
SmartFlix, HeavyInk…PumpFix?
Shudder. Ewww and a half.
December 1st, 2007 at 12:44 am
[quote comment="106427"]
SmartFlix, HeavyInk…PumpFix?[/quote]
Our internal codename for HeavyInk was “Underdog”, which gave rise to the suffix “-dog” when we speculate about further lines of business. E.g. selling axes would be “Axe Dog”, etc.
So:
PenisDog.
As you said: “Ewww and a half.”
December 1st, 2007 at 11:17 am
Question #4: How do I become a supplier of penis pumps to the Government?
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:47 am
Joan, wear something tight and revealing.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Doesn’t this example reveal a fundamental flaw of socialized medicine? Without the market and its price system, how would you know the government paid 4 times too much for it?
December 4th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Without the market and its price system,
Bosh. We just eliminate the market and that eliminates that pesky little flaw of socialized medicine.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
There are new medicare plans for 2008. I would strongly recommend reviewing your current plan each year as there are sometimes dramatic differences. If you think outside the box you will find some great health plans. The big companies such as Blue Cross will charge whatever they want because they assume people will just go with the name and they spend a ton of money on advertising which reflects in the premiums and benefits. If you look at some other companies you may be pleasantly surprised with the benefits you will find.