Chicago Tribune
May 8, 2004
Voice of the People
Medicine prices
By Ida Hellander, MD, Executive director; Quentin Young, MD, National
coordinator; Physicians for a National Health Program
Chicago — This is regarding “The high price of drugs” (Editorial, May 2). It’s true that reimportation of drugs from Canada is “no long-term solution,” but it’s equally shortsighted to keep Medicare from negotiating drug prices with the pharmaceutical giants.
In fact, that’s the only long-term solution to ensuring that all Americans receive both lifesaving medications and value for their tax dollars. We don’t need to import drugs from Canada; we need to import Canadian drug prices. There is no reason to expose us to the costs and risks of physically exporting and then reimporting drugs when our sole intent is to bring our drug prices closer to those of Canada.
We need to negotiate with pharmaceutical firms, demanding that they provide much greater value for their products. Much of their research is wasted on products that are designed to restart the patent clock.
And then they waste funds on intensive marketing to convince physicians and the public that these more expensive products should be purchased when they are often no better than existing, but less profitable, generic products.
Medicare currently negotiates rates for physicians, hospitals, laboratories and other health-care providers. The process may not be perfect and needs continual fine-tuning, but the results are that we receive greater value for our Medicare investment. There is absolutely no reason that the pharmaceutical industry should be exempted from this process.
The claim that negotiated prices would bring an end to innovation and research is totally without merit. There is absolutely no way that the global pharmaceutical industry is going to walk away from its share of the $1.8 trillion that we are currently spending on health care. The growth in medical technology continues unabated even though profits on their products are limited by rate setting of both government and private insurance programs.
Pharmacy benefit managers are no substitute for Medicare using its purchasing power on behalf of seniors. PBMs don’t drive the best bargains for consumers; they switch patients’ medications to boost profits–their own. Some PBMs are under investigation for taking tens of millions of dollars in “rebates” from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for increasing sales of “preferred” brands (regardless of their cost). Do they pass on the savings? Do pigs fly?
Americans are already spending more than enough to provide comprehensive health care for everyone, including full access to beneficial drugs. But we need to eliminate the waste in our system. If we had a single, universal insurance system, such as Medicare for All, we would be in a position to sit down with the pharmaceutical firms and demand that they provide us with real value for our health-care investment.
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