Democrats are increasingly referring to high drug prices as the next big health care battle that must be fought and won.
While millions of Americans have gained health insurance through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, health care in the U.S. remains far more expensive than in other western countries, in no small part due to the high cost of prescription medication. From a policy perspective, the progressive health reform that Democrats envision must include a strategy to keep drug prices down.
In addition, recent controversies over exponential price hikes by pharmaceutical companies may have made the public even hungrier than usual for proposals to lower drug costs. In September, just days after news that Turing Pharmaceuticals had raised the price of a life-saving drug commonly used by HIV patients by more than 5000 percent, Hillary Clinton released a plan for monthly caps on out-of-pocket drug costs.
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At a recent forum, Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell said that high medication costs were a "problem we must solve," according to The Hill.
"We know that too many Americans struggle to afford the medications they need," she said. "A recent Kaiser survey showed that almost a quarter of Americans have skipped filling a prescription over the last year."
She was nevertheless careful not to antagonize the pharmaceutical industry.
"With an explosion of innovation, we have the opportunity to find new medicines, therapies and cures," she said. "We have the chance to improve the quality of life for those suffering from diseases today and help prevent many more."
But life-saving drugs are only part of the solution. Making them accessible to those in need is the critical second part. Burwell emphasized that neither goal should compromise the other.
A potential way to drive down costs, said Burwell, would be to tie Medicaid and Medicare payments to the performance of drugs that are prescribed. Such a policy change would be in line with an increasing trend away from fee-for-service care that the Obama administration has been pushing on a number of fronts. Earlier this week, the administration announced the implementation of a new Medicare policy that will tie payments for joint replacements to the success of the operation.
Outcome-based payment for drugs has already been implemented to a limited extent in the private sector. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care recently announced a deal with Amgen, the maker of a cholesterol medication that will tie payments to the success of the medication in lowering patient cholesterol levels.
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