A new "report jointly sponsored by Carleton University and Public Citizen has concluded that Medicare Part D pays needlessly high brand-name drug prices compared with other developed countries and U.S. government programs.
The report states:
- After including rebates, brand-name drugs cost Medicare Part D 198% of the median costs for the same brand-name drugs in the 31 countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
- Medicare Part D pays on average 73% more than Medicaid and 80% more than the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for brand-name drugs. Medicare Part D would save from $15.2 billion to $16 billion a year if it could secure the same prices that Medicaid or VHA receives on the same brand-name drugs.
- While Medicaid and VHA often are used as benchmarks because of the rebates or discounts they secure, even these organizations pay higher prices than many OECD countries.
- Under current Medicare Part D pricing, non-innovative "me-too" drugs are priced as much or more than older, equally effective versions. This artificially increases the incentives for developing non-innovative "me-too" drugs rather than innovative medicines for unmet needs.
- Reducing brand-name drug prices would reduce the high level of cost-related non-adherence (people not filling their prescription for financial reasons) and reduce taxpayers' contribution to Medicare Part D would decrease by at least $11 billion every year. "
We won't see changes to Medicare because Big Pharma spends part of these oversized profits on buying members of Congress so they will vote against any meaningful reform of Medicare Part D.
Time to get money out of politics.