A hepatitis C cure can be priced at tens of thousands of dollars in one country and a few hundred in another — for the identical active pharmaceutical ingredient, often produced in the very same class of facility. A cancer therapy that costs a family their savings every month may be available at a fraction of that cost elsewhere. An adrenaline auto-injector that costs hundreds can be a few dollars as a plain ampoule.
These are not secrets. They are simply invisible to the person who needs them most, at the exact moment they are least able to research anything: while they are ill, frightened and financially stretched.
The consequence is measurable and cruel. People split tablets. They skip doses. They stop chemotherapy support medication. They choose between insulin and rent. Clinicians call this financial toxicity, and it damages outcomes as surely as any untreated disease.