Posted by Michael Wonder on 09 Dec 2018
Medical device price differentials in the U.S. and Europe – rethinking price regulation?
7 December 2018 - Recently, there has been a robust discussion of an October Trump administration proposal that Medicare pay for certain prescription drugs based on an “international pricing index” determined by prices in Europe.
This proposal followed a government study showing that Medicare was paying 80% more for many physician-administered drugs than other advanced industrialised countries.
A recent fascinating article in Health Affairs by Martin Wenzl and Elias Mossialos notes that price differentials between the US and other advanced industrialised countries are much steeper for cardiac implant devices than even for drugs – prices are two to six times higher in the US than in Germany.
