Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Negotiating On Medicare Drug Prices Is An Absolute Necessity
The Star Tribune: Here's How We'll Lower The Cost Of Prescription Drugs
"So here's a good idea …" That was the opening line of one of the first television ads I ran as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. The idea? Lowering prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of drugs for seniors. Acting to stop skyrocketing drug prices still couldn't be more urgent. Many seniors have seen eye-popping price increases on many of the drugs they need to survive. In the past five years, the cost of Lyrica, a drug that treats nerve pain, increased 47%, while Symbicort, a medication for asthma and COPD, increased 46%, just to name a couple. And as a result, nearly 20% of older adults have reported not taking their medicines as prescribed because of the cost. (Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., 8/23)
The Washington Post: The Reconciliation Bill Is Really About Health Care. And 2022
So much media coverage regarding the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package has focused on the legislative process for passing the bills. The contents of those packages, however, have received scant attention — especially the reconciliation bill. "Human infrastructure” and “Build Back Better” sound rather nebulous, but in truth, much of the appeal of that social spending bundle centers on health care. And it is there that Democrats’ hopes for 2022 primarily rest. They might consider calling it the “Build Health Care Better” plan. (Jennifer Rubin, 8/23)
Stat: Stop The Failed Accountable Care Organization Experiment
For the last half-century, Congress has endorsed essentially the same approach to cutting health care costs, an approach that came to be called “managed care” by the mid-1980s. Based on the assumption that U.S. health care costs are double those of other wealthy nations because doctors order services patients don’t need, the solution is to “manage” doctors and provide financial incentives that nudge them to cut services. The managed care approach has not only failed to cut costs, it has contributed to health care inflation by encouraging mergers and driving up administrative costs. The failure of the accountable care organization (ACO), a prominent iteration of managed care, illustrates the problem. (Kip Sullivan and James G. Kahn, 8/23)
Buffalo News: New Yorkers Can't Afford Sky-High Drug Prices
Whether you’re aware of it or not, you probably know people who skip taking all the medication they’re supposed to because they can't afford it. Americans pay three times what people in Canada and other countries pay for the same medicine. It is tragic and shocking, and it’s long overdue for the president and Congress – and New York State – to take action. AARP has tracked the prices of the most commonly used prescription drugs for well over a decade. Every year those prices have risen faster – often much faster – than inflation. Last year, amid the pandemic and economic downturn, the prices for 260 widely used brand-name medications rose more than twice the rate of general inflation, AARP’s Rx Price Watch Report found. (David McNally, 8/22)
