Posted by Michael Wonder on 11 Jul 2018
Why putting drug prices in ads is a bad idea
11 July 2018 - When the Trump administration released its blueprint for lowering drug prices a couple months ago, it floated a trial balloon: What if we required manufacturers to include drug prices in direct-to-consumer advertising?
It’s unclear if the intent of doing that is to make prices more transparent to consumers, to “shame” manufacturers into lowering prices, to discourage spending on direct-to-consumer advertising, or all of the above.
A recently released Kaiser Health Tracking Poll explored what the American public thought of the idea. Not surprisingly, 76% were in favour of it, which nearly matched the percentage of Americans from a March Kaiser poll who said drug prices are too high.
