SUMMARY: The U.S. needs to take substantial steps to address the high costs of cancer drugs. From 2009 to 2019, the median monthly treatment costs for new drugs at launch reached $11,755 in the U.S… Does the question become how much is a month(s) of other life worth?
Category Archive: Cost of healthcare in the U.S.
OPENING: As the NY Times recently reported, obesity is the leading cause of mortality in the United States. Obesity costs the nation $1.72 trillion every year. Although not everyone with type 2 diabetes is overweight, obesity and an inactive lifestyle are two of the most common causes of type 2 diabetes. These things are responsible for about 90% to 95% of diabetes cases in the United States
SUMMARY: CVS announced its plans to begin closing its doors–about 900 locations across the country. They know the future isn’t about selling 20 kinds of shampoos and vitamins. In the words of the company’s mission, its goal is to “make high-quality health and pharmacy services safe, affordable and easy to access.”
The Medicare prescription drug pricing plan Democrats unveiled is not nearly as ambitious as many lawmakers sought, but they and drug policy experts say the provisions crack open the door to reforms that could have dramatic effects. More changes are coming as consumers are tired of high drug prices while pharma reports record profits.
SUMMARY: The new, proposed, drug legislation is a first step rather than a sweeping change. It’s a collection of measures meant to bring down prices slowly and on targeted drugs, and pharma is already complaining.
SUMMARY: Medicare spent nearly $600 million over a three-year period to pay for four cancer drugs with no clinical benefit an analysis published Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine found. More than $170 million of this spending was for products voluntarily withdrawn by their manufacturers after clinical trials showed that they did not improve overall survival in people with various types of cancer.
SUMMARY: With supplier costs rising, companies representing some of the biggest brands are urging Congress to address drug pricing. According to STAT News, “groups representing the largest businesses in the country, including Walmart, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Boeing, and The Walt Disney Company, have demanded wide-reaching reforms to help lower the cost of prescription drugs”.
SUMMARY: Three House Democrats on a key committee voted against the measure to lower drug prices as PhRMA ramped up its lobbying dollars to buy politicians. “I understand that the pharmaceutical industry owns the Republican Party and that no Republican voted for this bill, but there is no excuse for every Democrat not supporting it,” Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote in a scathing statement.