As prescription drug costs continue to squeeze state budgets, a group of state health policy makers is offering some novel — and also some familiar — suggestions for coping. These include regulating the pharmaceutical industry as a utility, allowing states to operate as pharmacy benefit managers and waiving some provisions of the Medicaid program.
In a paper released on Tuesday, the National Academy for State Health Policy also recommends that states pursue laws that require more transparency from drug makers. And the organization floated some timeworn proposals, such as importing medicines from Canada and prosecuting drug makers for violating consumer protection laws that protect against predatory pricing monopolies.
“States, as large drug purchasers, generally negotiate discounts against those high launch prices and against annual price increases, but they are powerless to change the trajectory of the industry pricing model,” according to a paper written by a working group of state legislative staffers, Medicaid programs, state-based insurance exchanges, corrections departments, and attorneys general staffs.
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Electricity became a utility b/c it was deemed necessary for humanity are pharmaceutical drugs any less a necessity for humanity?
Careful what you wish for. The Rural Electrification Act under Roosevelt created the Tennessee Valley Authority to bring cheap electricity to the southeast. Under TVA electric rates have become among the most expensive in the country.
Why stop with regulating Pharma as a utility? Why not extend that approach to all of medicine?
Of course, make it like the sewer and water company.
Call 1-800-BAD-DRUG
“Your hold time is three weeks”.
b/c the doctor/patient relationship is the essence of good medicine. TVA rates are so high b/’c the commission that regulates them is not doing its job.
Ed, if we are intellectually honest we have to accept the ultimate reality that the United States will have a single payer system in a few years and these proposals will become academic.