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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Steve Lokness who wrote (239297)12/4/2013 12:25:11 PM
From: Wharf Rat  Read Replies (1) of 542169
 
"Do you think the cost of a stitch (et al) is going to go down? "

I don't expect deflation. I do expect more people will be employed in health care. I'm not sure I expect lower drug costs, but I still have hope. I do expect more people on the wrong kind of drugs (anything a doc gives you). I'm beginning to expect that we will be less fat and more fit in '16. I expect that people will quit going bankrupt because of health care costs.

Controlling Prescription Drug Costs Through Bulk Purchasing

In the United States we pay from a fourth more (Canada) to three times more (New Zealand) than countries with single payer health care for the most commonly prescribed drugs. Costs are so high in the United States that more than 1 million Americans purchase prescription drugs illegally from Canada every year (see this wonderful cartoon summarizing the data and politics of U.S. drug costs, and the illegal Canadian drug pipeline).

Implementing a single payer health care system in the U.S. would create a large, public insurer capable of negotiating lower prices with drug manufacturers. As a small step in this direction, Mass-Care has advocated for bulk purchasing of prescription drugs by the state. A 1999 law and a 2002 law already on the books require that all state agencies in Massachusetts bulk purchase prescription drugs – but the laws have never been implemented.

Part of the problem is that most insurers, including the state, hire Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) companies to negotiate low drug prices for them. Many PBMs are large and have negotiating power, but they are also for-profit middle men who pocket the savings they negotiate as profits. In 2007, Mass-Care co-wrote a letter to the Governor with MassPIRG and Mass. Senior Action, calling on the state to use its own negotiating power to bring down drug costs for the state, and to allow private insurers to join the state’s purchasing plan to create even more leverage.

The Massachusetts 2012 Payment Reform Act establishes a “Pharmaceutical Cost Containment Commission” to study bulk purchasing and other measures, and Mass-Care will continue to advocate for taking steps towards a single prescription drug payer that can negotiate affordable drug costs for Mass. residents.

masscare.org
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