Health Care for America Now (HCAN) Pushes for Allowing Medicare to Secure Lower Drug Prices

Ethan Rome, Executive Director for the not-for-profit HCAN, recently wrote an Op-Ed for the Huffington Post indicating that over the past decade, 11 major pharmaceutical companies cashed in on $711 billion in profits while older adults, taxpayers, and consumers were stuck with the tab.

HCAN reviewed the financial statements of these companies and concluded that many of them engaged in price-gouging: charging Medicare Part D inflated prices for their drugs (for which Medicare was not allowed to negotiate). In fact, after the implementation of Medicare Part D in 2006, the combined profits of the largest companies spiked to 34 percent above profits from the previous year. In 2012, annual profits reached $83.9 billion, a staggering 62 percent jump from 2003. The US spends about 40 percent more than Canada, 75 percent more than Japan and three times more than Denmark, per capita, on prescription drugs.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), allowing Medicare to get similar “bulk purchasing” discounts on prescription drugs as state Medicaid programs would save the federal government $137 billion over 10 years. HCAN and the Medicare Rights Center strongly support allowing Medicare to secure more reasonable drug prices.

Read the post here.