Pharma, insurers point fingers over high health care costs
Are drug prices too high or is health insurance creating too many barriers to accessing care? Maybe it's both.
What’s to blame for the high costs of our health care system? It depends on who you ask. Drug manufacturers will point to the high cost of health insurance, and health insurers will point to the high cost of drugs.
Last month, PhRMA, a research and lobbying group for the pharmaceutical industry, released its Barriers to Health Care Access and the Patient Experience report, which highlights the financial struggle health insurance and out-of-pocket costs pose for Americans. The report noted that 59% of survey respondents would rather pay lower out-of-pocket costs than health insurance premiums, and that “Health insurance benefit design and out-of-pocket costs are barriers to care that can lead to non-adherence.”
Related: Doctors propose new diagnosis: ‘Unable to pay for prescriptions’
Meanwhile, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) clapped back last week, releasing its analysis of spending among the pharmaceutical industry. Among the 10 largest companies by revenue, seven spent more on marketing expenses in 2020 than research and development. Notably, the analysis pointed out, this was during a year when pharmaceutical giants were racing to develop new treatments and vaccines to counteract the COVID pandemic.
“Drug manufacturers offer many important medicines that people need and deserve, but patients and our health care system should not be priced gouged for them. Big Pharma’s practices clearly show that their growth strategy is based on selling a greater volume of drugs to patients – not on creating groundbreaking new therapies and delivering more value to patients,“ AHIP wrote in a blog post.
So who is right? Both organizations, of course. As the PhRMA report concluded, “we need to look more broadly at the health care system, versus any one element, to improve health care for those with the greatest challenges accessing care.”
However, rather than highlighting how other segments of the health care industry are contributing to our dysfunctional system, a better tactic might be to for stakeholders to take personal responsibility and offer solutions for how they can contribute to a better health care industry future.
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