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This is common, the US is alone in its legislation against negotiating as a group for prescription prices.
by thatcat 9y ago
This is common, the US is alone in its legislation against negotiating as a group for prescription prices.
- selectodude 9y agothe government is not allowed to negotiate at all on drug prices (utterly insane, thank you W. Bush) but insurance companies can, and do, negotiate as a group.
- refurb 9y agoThat's an over simplification. Sure Medicare and Medicaid don't negotiate directly. Instead they impose discounts by fiat (no discount, no gov't business). Look up the 340B program and mandatory Medicaid rebates. They add up to huge discounts. In most cases Medicaid pays the lowest price of any customer and Medicare often pays the same as private insurers. It's a fallacy to say the gov't is getting screwed over by not negotiating over drug prices.
- thatcat 9y agoTo show that it is a fallacy you would need to compare the final drug costs after rebate with an average of foriegn govs that do negotiate rather than private insurers.
- refurb 9y agoI'm cherry picking data, but the new hepatitis C drugs are cheaper in the US than the major EU countries. As for a proper analysis of your question, I'm not sure that data is available. Net prices in the US are confidential.