For the last 20 years, all Americans have been getting ripped off by pharmaceutical companies. The heist began way back when a prescription drug benefit was added for Medicare enrollees. Drug company lobbyists got Congress to write the law so that Medicare is prohibited from negotiating drug prices.
As a result, Medicare pays 300% more for prescription drugs than in Europe or Canada, and close to 10x higher than in developing nations. That means every American who gets a paycheck is pay way more than necessary for prescription drugs.
Why are we ALL being scammed (not just Medicare beneficiaries)? Simple: because Medicare is paid for by a payroll tax.
Because Medicare is paid for by a payroll tax, everybody who earns a paycheck is getting ripped off by drug companies- even if they’re not enrolled in Medicare and even if they don’t even take prescription drugs!
The gravy that the drug companies are taking from us is tremendously expensive. Last year, Medicare paid out $129 Billion dollars for prescription drugs. If Medicare were allowed to negotiate prices, taxpayers could save about $60B per year (enough to pay for dental and vision benefits for Medicare recipients).
Because healthcare costs in private health insurance plans is often driven by Medicare reimbursement, people in employer and other private health insurance plans are paying way too much too (resulting in higher monthly premiums).
Previous AzPHA Blog Posts on this Subject:
Fortunately, there’s a simple market-based solution.
The president’s Build Back Better plan includes a provision that would save the federal government and everyday consumers billions of dollars per year by finally allowing Medicare to negotiate brand name drug prices with manufacturers.
The US House of Representatives already passed a measure called “H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019” which would require HHS to negotiate the price of between 25-125 brand-name drugs. That negotiated price would be available to Medicare, Medicaid and private payers.
It would establish an upper limit for the negotiated price equal to 120% of the Average International Market price paid by Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK.
The plan would impose financial penalties on drug companies that don’t comply with the negotiating process. Manufacturers that fail to negotiate would face an escalating excise tax on the previous year’s gross sales of the drug in question, starting at 65% and increasing by 10% every quarter to a maximum of 95%.
The Big Con
The drug companies are trying to confuse the public and seniors by substituting real drug pricing reform (Medicare negotiation) with a cosmetic plan to lower out-of-pocket costs at the pharmacy counter for Medicare enrollees.
Under the con, prescription drug prices would appear to be lower because Medicare recipients would have lower co-pays. The scam is that that the Medicare Trust Fund would continue to pay 300% more than necessary for drugs.
The Medicare Trust Fund would continue to be unnecessarily drained, and private health plans would also continue to pass along extra costs to their customers in the form of increased premiums.
It’s frustrating that even though 94% of the public supports this common-sense market-based reform (allowing Medicare to negotiate prices), has been significantly watered down in the latest plan being negotiated in Congress. I’ll have a blog post next week on the details of that watered down plan.
