5 October 2017 - Compared with other high-income countries, the US spends the most per capita on prescription drugs.

Sarnak et al. from the Commonwealth Fund set out to compare drug spending levels and trends in the U.S. and nine other high-income countries — Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; consider potential explanations for higher U.S. spending; and explore patients’ exposure to pharmaceutical costs.

They found various factors contribute to high per capita drug spending in the U.S. While drug utilisation appears to be similar in the U.S. and the nine other countries considered, the prices at which drugs are sold in the U.S. are substantially higher. These price differences appear to at least partly explain current and historical disparities in spending on pharmaceutical drugs. U.S. consumers face particularly high out-of-pocket costs, both because the U.S. has a large uninsured population and because cost-sharing requirements for those with coverage are more burdensome than in other countries.

Read Commonwealth Fund article