Prescription Drugs Continue to Impact Health Insurance Regardless of CriticismFebruary 2008
Despite calls to lower prices for prescription drugs from all three major presidential candidates, the costs for brand-name medications have continued to increase, making it difficult for people to pay for their medications or their
health insurance.
According to the
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, "in some cases, pharmaceutical companies have increased the prices of brand-name medications scheduled to lose patent protection to prompt patients to switch to similar, newer products that will have patent protection for a number of years." This is because when patents on prescription drugs expire, they can be sold as generics, and more and more Americans are choosing medical insurance plans that cover generics.
Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both campaigned for health insurance reform, and both have said that they support proposals to allow the federal government to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Republican leader John McCain has also made promises to change the
medical insurance market, saying that he supports the legalization of prescription drug reimportation from Canada to reduce costs and "keep competition vigorous."
If prescription drugs could cost less, or be subject to a more competitive market, health insurance costs would certainly go down and potentially life saving medications would be easier to come by for many people.
So why hasn't this already happened? The answer lies with lobbies.
Facts on:
Health Insurance Impacts
Did you know...
Wholesale prices for the 50 brand-name medications with the most sales increased by an average of 7.82% in 2007, compared with increases of 6.73% and 6.22% in the previous two years?
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The pharmaceutical companies have some of the most powerful lobbies in Washington. And, with billions spent on advertising, they do a good job of selling their product to America too.
It would be great to see prescription drug costs dropping, and medical insurance more affordable for everyone, but no one knows for sure whether the candidates will make good on their promises. Only in 2009 will we see how it goes, but until then, it's best to hang on to a health insurance plan that offers generic drugs in place of more expensive designer drugs.
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