[E. Pluribus Unum]

It’s government-granted monopolies that are the problem.

[Brian Griffin]

I believe there is a Grassley-Wyden drug bill too.

[Brian Griffin]

What might be done is to have Medicare Part D plans buy on an all the doctors prescribe basis with typical co-pays 95+x% of the federal Medicare Part D subsidy amount, where x is insurer chosen. Plan buyers would pay the x% as a premium. The 5% would be insurer overhead and profit.

Not every drug or every drug class need be covered, but in practice there would be few exceptions.

No drug company would want to be left behind. No insurer would want gaps in its coverage.

Part B drug coverage would be eliminated in year 2 and the federal Part D subsidy increased to allow Part D coverage to be expanded.

This leaves price setting to the marketplace.

[Brian Griffin]

“notion... drugs are expensive”

$50000/year/patient

$1.5 million/year/patient

What should a politician think of such pricing?

[Rembrandt]

Price controls are ALWAYS a bad idea!

[GailA]

95% tax on Prescriptions https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nancy-pelosi-unveils-95-tax-proposal-on-prescription-medicines?fbclid=IwAR1qTewrpVaR-RazUyofrCIZYx4gMBaCpay0KbfIn99T-sQMCyETonLIsZU

[DoodleDawg]

My dad has metastatic prostate cancer, fortunately in remission. He gets Lupron injections every four months. When he switched from getting his injections from his urologist to his oncologist the cost of the injections billed to his insurance went from $2,400 to $87,500. Needless to say he kept seeing his oncologist and went back to his urologist for his injections. Government isn’t necessarily the problem in this area.

[minnesota_bound]

How about the gov’t / taxpayers pay the cost of research once the drug is ok’d for use. The price should be a lot lower.

[Svartalfiar]

The U.S. does have a drug price index as part of Medicare Part B. Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist noted in The Hill last December the U.S. bases its prices for certain drugs on the average sales cost for Americans. Why foreign countries need to be brought into the mix is anyone’s guess.

Um, because those other companies should be sharing in the cost of RnD? Why should American patients be paying like crazy, while other countries force the drug companies to sell at much lower prices?

I disagree with government mandated price controls, but how else do you bring these drug prices down? Outside of setting a floor/ceiling, the best option I see is to charge an export tax that brings up the price of overseas drugs to American levels, and if that tax is based on the overseas cost, then manufacturers will eventually bring prices in line across the board.