I was a member of a very large public sector health plan that was extremely aggressive about negotiations, to the point that for awhile any maintenance medication had to be shipped from Canada. They get good prices, but not that good -- iirc my blood pressure medication total cost was 10-15% less than the shitty small business HMO that I had previously.
Generally speaking, the US government demands most favored pricing and gets it. No way we would pay more than France.
Europe does better because they have the ability to prevent sale of a drug and the drug company can just raise the price in the US. If the US gets in the game, I would expect European prices to spike, especially in smaller countries.
> Generally speaking, the US government demands most favored pricing and gets it. No way we would pay more than France.
I though the US government, except for the VA, was "not permitted to negotiate prices of drugs with the drug companies" due to Medicare Part D. (Quoting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Part_D#Criticisms .) Was that prohibition removed?
If it's still there, then wouldn't that prevent the US government from demanding most favored pricing, as that would be a negotiation.
Probably depends on the cost of medication to begin with. My HBP medication is like 25 cents a pill even without insurance. I figure it can't really go much lower than that given that all those folks at the pharmacy need to be paid. Now if something is $25 a pill, there's definitely more room for negotiation.
Generally speaking, the US government demands most favored pricing and gets it. No way we would pay more than France.
Europe does better because they have the ability to prevent sale of a drug and the drug company can just raise the price in the US. If the US gets in the game, I would expect European prices to spike, especially in smaller countries.
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