Use real world data, not international reference pricing to set US drug prices

American Enterprise Institute

25 June 2019 - The Trump administration has proposed using international reference pricing for medicines. 

This would mean that the US government would pay less for certain medicines provided to older Americans through Medicare. The new rates would be closer to the lower prices paid by other developed countries.

While making medicines affordable to patients and improving the healthcare system is a laudable goal, this policy will have little impact on the federal budget or on the costs borne by patients. Pharmaceutical companies could easily get around it by refusing to sell their products to the countries used as reference, or by offering a confidentially contracted discount to them and keeping the public price high. A much better way for the federal government to glean valuable information and determine how to spend less on health care, would be to take advantage of the existing data found in the millions of medical records available in America.

Read American Enterprise Institute press release

Michael Wonder

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Michael Wonder

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Medicine , US , Regulation , Pricing , Data