Category Archive: Cost of healthcare in the U.S.

Pharma sideshow to perform in front of Congress today

KEY IDEA: Today some pharma CEO’s will go to Congressional Hill to answer questions about high drug prices. Politicians are conducting this charade because they want to give voters the idea that “they care” and that they are doing something. What won’t be discussed are the real reasons American healthcare is the most expensive in the world with poor results.

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Defending the $375,000 annual price tag of a prescription drug

  • Catalyst CEO Patrick McEnany is now building his stand around the FDA approval of the $375,000 annual price tag it has slapped on its newly approved drug Firdapse.
  • “We believe that the pricing of our product is in line with the pricing of other products that provide significant clinical benefits” according to their CEO.
  • The CEO also says the company will do whatever they can to limit patients’ out of pocket cost but the damage is already done.
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Our high cost of care will remain stubbornly fixed unless our behavior changes.

  • Our high cost of care and modest health outcomes will remain stubbornly fixed unless our behavior changes.
  •  Nearly 40% of Americans were considered obese in 2015 and 2016, a significant increase from 2007 and 2008.
  • A 2016 study published in the Journal of the AMA found that only 2% of Americans met the ideal dietary guidelines adopted by the American Heart Association.
  • In a 2015 survey, 28% of American adults that they did not participate in the past year in any of 104 listed physical activities and were considered “totally sedentary.”
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Why pharma companies continue to feel the heat over pricing

  • Pharma continues to be portrayed as the villain in pricing but there are other villains who are escaping scrutiny.
  • The 5 largest conglomerates combining health insurance and pharmacy benefits are on track this year to be bigger than the 5 preeminent tech companies.
  • Half of people in fair to poor health are uninsured or struggle with affordability.
  • Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose five percent to an average $19,616 this year, extending a seven-year run of moderate increases.
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Pharma still blaming drug middlemen for obscene prices

  • Pharma, which used to cite the high cost of research, now say rebates within supply chain drive up prices.
  • Pharma says they don’t actually benefit much from list-price increases and that their net prices are suffering, because they are paying bigger rebates to pharmacy-benefit managers that negotiate prices in secret with their clients, such as employers and labor unions.
  • Drugmakers’ price increases are unrelated to the rebates, according to research commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a trade group for PBMs.
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The healthcare debate the media refuses to acknowledge

  • Drug prices continue to fuel media stories and drive politicians to action but, for the most part, the real driver of high healthcare costs is being ignored.
  • The total percentage of non-elderly people with insurance and affordability problems to 26.2%.
  • The number of US adults with diabetes increased from 21.2 million in 2003-2004 to 30.2 million in 2013-2014, while the prevalence of obesity rose from 31.7% to 37.5% over the same period.
  • Millennials are on track to be the most obese generation.
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