What should be done about the outrageous increases in prescription drug prices?

[Mixolydian]

I pay nothing out of pocket for prescriptions, even brand-name.

 

[dmcowen674]

I saw my primary the day before yesterday and am having a followup with my cardiologist today so I'll know better how things are, but my cardiac enzymes were 17,400 and my primary got a call from the chief resident whom he knows well saying "guess who's here" and although my primary didn't say what the troponin levels were (I really didn't want to know at that moment) they apparently were

Wow are you a lucky man.

There must be a reason for you to still be here.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Wont matter until the drug companies stop handing over piles of cash to the politicians.


Im must say Im somewhat impressed, pretty much everyone in this thread except for one weirdo (even the liberals!) is starting to see that the drug companies are gouging the shit out of you and are one of the biggest reasons why your medical costs keep skyrocketing. Usually these threads end up, "the doctors union is keeping all the money!"or some other BS like that.

Count me as another weirdo who disagrees with you.

http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statist...onalHealthExpendData/downloads/highlights.pdf

This data is from the end of 2013 and does not reflect 2014 trends but the takeaways are:

1. Prescription drugs are less than 10% of total healthcare costs
2. Prescription drug spending grew at a slower rate in 2013 than overall healthcare spending.

 

[rudeguy]

Wow are you a lucky man.

There must be a reason for you to still be here.

He's the good ying to bad yang like me.

I love me some Winny. I don't want to lose him

 

[shira]

I noticed the billed amount of my avonex was up from 4500 to 5500 over the last year, so I'm not surprised it was on the chart. Luckily I only pay $40.

But those are all retail prices that not many people pay, especially now with obamacare and mandatory drug coverage. Plus some drug companies have programs to help. Biogen has a program do you only pay $10 per month but I figure I make too much to be bothered with applying.

As to controlling the costs, we need to stop all research and make do with what is available now.

So no drugs to prevent or mitigate Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's? No drugs to prevent breast or prostate cancer? No new vaccines?

 

[shira]

The letters target ten commonly prescribed drugs that have had outrageous price hikes. The representative drugs they have asked for information on include doxycycline, an antibiotic that has been in use for decades, which has gone from $20 a bottle for 500 pills in October 2013 to $1,849 a bottle in April, 2014. Other drugs listed in the request include pravastatin, which lowers cholesterol, digoxin, a widely used, crucial drug for millions of cardiac patients which has been around for literally hundreds of years, and albuterol tablets, an asthma medication. The price of Digoxin has increased 884%. The price of the migraine and anti-seizure medicine Divalproex Sodium ER has increased 736% for a bottle of 80, 500 mg extended release tablets. You can see the chart of the medicines released by Sanders and Cummings here.

According to a study by Pembroke Consulting posted on Drugchannels.net the increases are staggering. For example, from July 2013 to July 2014 Captopril 50 mg tablets went from a National Average Drug Acquisition Cost ("NADC") by pharmacies of 3 cents a tablet to $1.31 a tablet. That's an increase of 3,806%. Captropril is taken by millions of people to control blood pressure. It is a very old, safe drug. There is no shortage or other reason to explain the increase. During the same time period the NADAC cost for the antibiotic tetracycline 500 mg capsule increased a whopping 17,714%. Tetracycline is another very old drug. It's not some cutting-edge treatment that a company recently spent millions to create.

Senator Sanders said in a statement, "It is unacceptable that Americans pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Generic drugs were meant to help make medications affordable for the millions of Americans who rely on prescriptions to manage their health needs. We've got to get to the bottom of these enormous price increases." Rep. Cummings said, "When you see how much the prices of these drugs have increased just over the past year, it’s staggering, and we want to know why."

Pharmaceutical companies lobby both Republicans and Democrats and they have very deep pockets, which is why the proposal to allow Americans to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada eventually failed, despite widespread support from Americans. We hope politicians from both parties will get on board with changing the fact that Americans pay the highest prescription drug costs in the world. We subsidize cheap drugs prices in Europe. That needs to stop.

But this is the free market, which as everyone knows is the solution to all problems. So it's clear that we in the U.S. need to make the free market for drug companies be even freer, and remove even more regulations.