Medtronics killed the low cost ventilator

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/30/medtronic-stole-your-ventilator/#market-oxygen

by zoobab • 6 years ago

77 6 6 years ago

Isamu• 6 years ago

The problem is that monopolies aren't just bad because they raise prices, they're bad because they are monopolies.

The specific harms raised are valid, but I get tired of this generalization. The Bell System was an example of a well regulated monopoly.

georgeecollins• 6 years ago

Some monopolies are necessary, like utilities. But they need to be regulated.

mgms3535• 6 years ago

There are clear arguments that Bell was managed like a national utility and they ended up allowing all use of their massive parent portfolio for free

mips_avatar• 6 years ago

Nytimes daily podcast covered this today. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/podcasts/the-daily/corona...

Super frustrating how the interests of the healthcare industry aren't aligned with national health.

Spooky23• 6 years ago

No, conservative economic and legal policy combined with judicial activism killed antitrust and other regulation, which enables bad market behavior.

doggodad• 6 years ago

It's "Medtronic," not "Medtronics."

Also, the AARC recommended in 2006 and 2008 that HHS add 10k+ ventilators to the SNS, but they didn't. The SNS ventilators that were stored were mostly unmaintained and unusable thanks to the lack of maintenance funding.

https://www.aarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/issue-paper-...

Medtronics killed the low cost ventilator

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