List prices for the 25 medicines that Medicare invests the most in have increased, on average, more than three times since they hit the market. According to new analysis By National Advocacy Group for America’s Older Adults.
AARP, which conducted the analysis, said the findings underscore the importance of federal legislation enacted a year ago to curb rising prescription drug prices.
“At AARP, we regularly hear from members who have had to choose between prescription drugs and other critical needs,” said the AARP Public Policy Institute. Lee Purvis, who tracks prescription drug policy, said: . “We don’t think anyone in 21st century America should make that decision.”
Purvis, who attended a national virtual press conference announcing the results of the analysis, said the data shows why provisions of the Controlled Inflation Act of 2022 are justified to keep some prescription drug prices in check through the federal Medicare program. said that
“AARP knows that people on Medicare prescription drug plans take an average of four to five prescription drugs a month,” Purvis said. “And their medicines are increasingly being covered using coin-insurance, which pays part of the price of the medicine, rather than a flat copay.”
A shift to this type of cost sharing means that patients will experience price increases more directly, she said. This can also occur if the patient’s deductible needs to cover more of the drug costs until the deductible is exhausted.
“Millions of other people do not have health insurance and have to bear the costs associated with ever-increasing drug prices,” Purvis added.
inflation control law, signed the law A year ago Wednesday, a measure was included for the first time allowing the Medicare prescription drug program to negotiate prices for prescription drugs with a limited number of pharmaceutical companies.
The law also requires drug companies to pay rebates to Medicare if prices rise above the prevailing rate of inflation, and caps Medicare patients on insulin bills at $35 a month.
The law’s bargaining provisions will be phased in, with the federal government negotiating prices for 10 drugs in the first phase. A list of these 10 companies will be published in September.
The AARP analysis focused on the 25 branded medicines with the highest total spending in 2021 in Medicare Part D, the prescription portion of the program that covers health care for people 65 and older.
According to the report, Medicare Part D spent $80.9 billion on 25 drugs taken by more than 10 million Part D patients.
The analysis looked at list price trends for each drug since its launch. On average, prices increased by 226% over their lifetime. Lifetime price increases ranged from 20% to 739%.
The analysis found that price increases for all but one drug were “significantly higher than the corresponding annual rate of general inflation” as measured by the consumer price index for all items covering all consumers in urban areas. It is said that
“While pharmaceutical companies bring these kinds of price increases to market every year, there is no justification for price increases that are much higher than those of other goods and services, especially,” Purvis said.
For drugs that have been on the market for at least 20 years, the average lifetime price increase was 592%. “In practice, this can be a difference of thousands of dollars per person,” Purvis said, noting that patients “make the trade-offs we hear about, like being able to put food on the table and being able to pay.” I will be forced,” he said. It’s for gas. ”
Drug price inflation doesn’t just affect the Medicare program and the patients who are prescribed those drugs. “Increased government spending due to higher drug prices will affect all Americans in the form of higher taxes, cuts in public works, or both,” the report said.
As for individual patients’ concerns, Purvis said, “We know that if drug prices continue to rise, more and more older Americans will stop taking the drug.” Stated. “And we know that will lead to worse health conditions and higher healthcare costs in the future.”
David Krelling, emeritus professor of pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, who studies the economics of prescription drug inflation, said the analysis used valid methods and accurate data. But the true picture of prescription drug costs is complicated by factors generally beyond the reach of researchers, he told Wisconsin examiners.
This analysis is based on list prices of publicly available medicines. However, medicines are prescribed and paid for against the backdrop of complex deals that health insurance companies negotiate with pharmaceutical companies.
Insurance companies will demand rebates on expensive drugs or deny prescription coverage. This would effectively lower the price of the drug, by an amount that has not been made public.
“The fact that there are so many rebates [practice] That’s what makes it so hard to get real information in the first place,” Kreling said. The list price “does not include any aftermarket phenomena”.
The need to pay rebates may also cause drug companies to raise list prices.From a pharmaceutical company’s perspective, if the requested rebate is “half list price,” it means that we [list] The price will be double the normal price,” he added.
Further, Krelling said that while the most expensive drugs account for the majority of the money Medicare spends on drugs, those expensive remedies account for a relatively small proportion, perhaps 10%, of the total volume of drugs dispensed to Medicare patients. He said it was nothing more than Most prescription drugs are generic prescription drugs that are much cheaper.
Yet another complication is that many of the expensive branded drugs are new and supported by extensive marketing programs, which attract the attention of patients and providers, he added.
But when comparing them to older, much cheaper alternatives, “whether they’re actually any better can be up for debate,” Kreling said.
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