Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The U.S. is currently involved with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but its longest running entanglement is its war on drugs. Marketplace reports that “the war on drugs, though, has been going on for four decades. Forty years ago today President Nixon asked Congress to create a national anti-drug policy. It became the war on…
Marketplace reports that the FDA has blocked sales from one of India’s largest drug producers, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals. “It prevented sales of Ranbaxy’s generic versions of the antibiotic Cipro and the cholesterol pill Zocor.” This begs the question: should the FDA put office in foreign countries? On the one hand, it is important to ensure that imported…
Some of the biggest public health problems involve the use of drugs in alcohol. Individuals use drugs and alcohol because they receive some psychic benefit. However, this has a cost to their own health and often the health of others (e.g., drunk driving, increased homicide rates). Whether or not the government should be involved in…
What percentage of your prescription drug costs should your insurance company cover? You may say “100%, of course!” However, if health insurance cover all pharmaceutical costs this will drive up premiums. One solution to this problem is reference pricing. If generics are available for $10 and name brand drugs are available for $100, the…
NPR’s Marketplace reports that the Cleveland Clinic has announced it’s going to disclose its doctors’ ties to the drug industry, upfront, on its website.
What happens to seized drug money? According to the Economist, in Montgomery County, Texas the sized drug money was used to fund the beer and liquor needs of the district attorney at their local county fair. The funds were also used to purchase a margarita machine. Looks like seized illegal drugs were used to fund…
The Economist has an interesting article on how pharmaceutical companies are trying to hawk their wares in developing countries (“Quagmire or goldmine?“) Generally, Pharma has stayed away from selling in developing countries due to uncertainties in their level of patent protection. For instance, Brazil has “threatened to invoke compulsory licensing (a legal mechanism that, in…
What is Medicare Part D? Medicare Part D began in 2006 and provides insurance coverage for pharmaceuticals for the elderly. The program is set up so that the government does not purchase the drugs directly, but subsidizes private prescription drug plans, which then negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies. There are two types of Part…
Is the free market working? Looks like. Wal-mart just dropped its prices on pharmaceuticals. According to a Marketwatch article (“Wal-mart…“) : Wal-mart will fill prescriptions for as many as 350 generic drugs costing $10 for a 90-day supply Over 1000 over-the-counter drugs are priced at $4 or less. Many of these include Wal-mart own private…
Consumers are starting to pay a larger share for high priced drugs. According to the N.Y. Times (“Co-payments“), insurance companies “…are charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 20 to 33 percent, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month.” Medicare’s drug plans have introduced new fee schedules where…