Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) play a crucial role in the healthcare industry by managing prescription drug benefits for health insurance plans, employers, and other organizations. While PBMs are very profitable. Congress is taking a hard look at PBMs and their role in rising prescription drug costs
Category Archive: Drug Prices
Many people, on social media, are saying that they’re losing weight on the new diabetes drug Ozempic. This drug works by lowering blood sugar and spurring insulin production, but insurers are reluctant to cover it, and it can cost $900 or more a month. However, some people who have tried the drug seem to have serious side effects.
The obesity market is expected to grow into a $54B market, but many questions remain, including the cost of $1,000-$1,500 a month and side effects, including nausea or diarrhea. After years of failed drugs, a new class of weight loss drugs reached the market last year — proving to be highly effective, but we don’t know about long-term side effects.
Nationwide, prescription drug spending last year is estimated to be $328 billion among all payers, including private insurance, Medicare Part D, and patients’ out-of-pocket expenses. Reforms to let Medicare negotiate prices, cap out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, and limit insulin cost-sharing would make lifesaving drugs more affordable. Still, the pharma industry is fighting hard to keep it off the table.
Right now, voters are worried about inflation and rising fuel prices, but they ignore the imminent threats to their healthcare. American healthcare continues to be under assault, and unless we address these issues, a severe health issue could bankrupt families.
The mortality rate from lung cancer has dropped in recent decades—by 56% in men from 1990 to 2019 and by 32% in women from 2002 to 2019. In recent years, early detection and treatment improvements have helped boost the 3-year survival rate for lung cancer from 21% in 2004 to 31% in 2015 through 2017. The 5-year survival rate has increased by 6% for distant-stage lung cancer, 33% for a regional-stage disease, and 60% for localized disease. But it’s still the leading cause of cancer deaths. (American Cancer Society’s ACS)
On Donald Trump’s way out the White House door, he did something revealing how he lied and cheated his way into office and about where his allegiances genuinely are. On January 4, 2021, two days before the insurrection and 16 days before Trump’s term ended, his administration proposed a new rule on drug prices, a major issue in both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns.