High US Drug Prices Explained

3 Responses to High US Drug Prices Explained

1. Tina says:

   Monday, September 28, 2015 at 8:08 pm

   Interesting article, Jack. I’m not sure what can be done about it. People who are sick hope for treatments that work or a cure. The costs associated with research and developement are astronomical and some of it never pans out.

   Maybe in the next twenty or thirty years new technological advances will bring cures so that meds are not as necessary…we can hope.

   Reply
2. Harold says:

   Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 8:40 am

   Health and medical benefits for Medicare, while still helpful to most can only be regarded as painful to others.

   Obama care inept plan as passed by the Democrat’s has done nothing to maintain health care costs increases.

   The steady rise in cost has put many a borderline retiree in financial hardships.

   To add to their bulging medical financial problems, recently the announcement that part D will experience a average 8% increase in 2016 only points out the lies in Obama’s speeches about lowering healthcare cost.

   The steady increase in cost can be linked to Governments involvement in any industry, Congress in their hurry didn’t think of how to reduce cost, even with a 2500 plus page law, in fact the more definitive Government gets with our everyday lives, the more we seem to pay….and the only thing that Government ever reduces are our freedom of choice.

   Reply
3. Tina says:

   Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 10:08 am

   Harold you raise an important issue for seniors.

   Heritage:

   The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) makes dramatic changes in the country’s health care system, especially in Medicare, that will seriously affect American seniors. Indeed, much of the health law’s new spending is financed by spending reductions in the Medicare program.
   Less Access to Care

   Obamacare mandates $716 billion in Medicare payment reductions from 2013 to 2022.[1] However, contrary to the way they are often portrayed, these cuts are not aimed at specific instances of waste, fraud, and abuse. Instead, they are across-the-board changes in Medicare payment formulas for a variety of Medicare providers, including hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, and hospice agencies.

   Despite the constant political rhetoric that Medicare payment reductions affect only providers and not beneficiaries, funding cuts for Medicare services will directly affect those who depend on those services. If Obamacare’s major reductions are implemented by Congress over the coming decade, seniors’ ability to access Medicare services will surely diminish. In fact, the Medicare Trustees project that the lower Medicare payment rates would cause 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies to become unprofitable by 2019, and this percentage would reach roughly 25 percent in 2030 and 40 percent by 2050.[2]

   This means that seniors would have an increasingly difficult time accessing care. As the Trustees explain:

   Medicare’s payments for health services would fall increasingly below providers’ costs. Providers could not sustain continuing negative margins and would have to withdraw from serving Medicare beneficiaries or (if total facility margins remained positive) shift substantial portions of Medicare costs to their non-Medicare, non-Medicaid payers.[3]

   Either way, the people lose!

   Reply