Posted by Michael Wonder on 19 Oct 2016
Medicare shouldn’t pay more for drugs when others pay less
18 October 2016 - Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump don’t see eye-to-eye on much. But they do agree that drug costs are spiraling out of control at the public’s expense.
Both the Democratic and the Republican candidates for president have said that Medicare should be able to negotiate drug prices, something that currently isn’t allowed by law. Letting Medicare do that — which the Department of Veterans Affairs and other countries have been doing for years — has the potential to transform health care.
Most developed nations, including Canada and the United Kingdom, negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to determine how much they will pay for medications. In the US, health care is covered by many different payers, with Medicare being the largest by far. The federal government never gave Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices. Instead, that’s done by the many private insurers that manage Medicare drug plans.
