Forbes medical analyst: rising drug prices will become a hot political issue in the United States

Recently, Joshua Cohen, a medical analyst with more than 20 years of experience in medical and drug analysis, made some comments on the annual increase in drug prices in the United States in 2020 in Forbes healthcare With the start of the new year, the annual rise in the price of prescription drugs in the United States began So far, pharmaceutical companies have raised the price of more than 400 prescription drugs, a figure that is likely to continue to increase in the coming weeks The prices of these drugs have risen by an average of about 5% These include drugs for diabetes and asthma, as well as for multiple sclerosis, AIDS and cancer Joshua Cohen mentioned that some medical analysts believe that the rise in drug prices is unreasonable without new clinical benefits The price of most commodities and daily necessities will rise every year The important thing is the proportion of price rise In other words, when the price of a drug increases at twice or even four times the consumer price index, it becomes a problem Although with the sharp rise in drug prices, there are some rebates that have not led to a significant increase in consumer spending Generally, these rebates will not be returned directly to consumers, and the actual payment amount of consumers is calculated based on the price When drugstores pay the full retail price, uninsured patients bear the brunt of the rise in the price of drug bills Therefore, for almost all patients, whether they are insured or not, price increases are very important For example, from 2011 to 2016, the price of multiple sclerosis drugs increased by an average of 125% This week's announcement of a 6% rise in the price of the multiple sclerosis drug, tecbidera, was much more modest However, patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis may still be affected because out of pocket expenses are growing faster than the general inflation rate Of the most common prescription drugs with rising prices, four out of 20 are diabetes drugs In recent years, there have been many controversies about the soaring out of pocket costs of insulin products According to reports, some patients gave up or rationed insulin for cost reasons Patients using other diabetes drugs will also increase out of pocket costs, which could trigger a further political backlash Although politicians from both parties are discussing drug prices in 2019, few or no measures have been taken to prevent drug prices from rising, reduce patients' out of pocket costs and, most importantly, change the prescription and rebate structures used by pharmacy benefit managers and medical insurance companies According to Joshua Cohen, the prescription drug price reduction act (s.2543) is likely to pass this year This law will reduce the out of pocket expenses of medical insurance beneficiaries However, if adopted, it will enter into force in 2022 In addition, patients who are not covered by health insurance will not be affected At the same time, the current situation is that once entering the new year (although the growth rate is lower than that of previous years), drug manufacturers will increase drug sales prices, and correspondingly, the amount of CO insurance for some patients and consumers will increase Two thirds of consumers said they expected to spend the same amount on prescription drugs in 2020 as in 2019, with 10% saying they expected to spend more, according to a study by retail menot company rxsaver Joshua Cohen believes that the newly announced price increase means that drug prices and patient cost sharing will continue to be top of the political agenda in the election year 2020 In fact, drug prices will remain a hot political issue after 2020, no matter who wins the polls this year, before kickbacks turn to the structural problems of patients to find solutions Reference source: annual real of drug price increases to get more political scriuting in 2020 It is stated that: this point of view only represents the author and does not represent the position of yaozhi.com, welcome to exchange and supplement in the message area; if you need to reprint, please be sure to indicate the author and source of the article.