Prescription Drug Prices

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Created on Wednesday, 13 April 2016 17:02

Written by Alexa Richard

AROUND THE NEK- The United States is known to have the highest prices for prescription drugs, which has become a problem for many Americans. The Health Care Committee in Vermont is looking for ways to lower those prescription costs.

"There's got to be transparency in pricing," Democratic Representative Peter Welch said. "The market forces of supply and demand have to work."

"The market has been driven the last year by unbelievable increases in medication," Physicians Assistant Mariam Simon said.

On March 15, the House Health Care Committee introduced a bill, H.866, which relates to the transparency of the costs with the prescription drug manufacturers identified by the Green Mountain Health Care Board.

This would direct the Green Mountain Health Care Board to provide an annual report describing the information that was received, which would later determine if there is a need for legislative, administrative, or other policy changes.

For each prescription drug that the Green Mountain Care Board identifies, each drug manufacturer must require the number of years the drug has been available to be bought in the United States, the number of years remaining on the patent, and the total research and development costs paid by the manufacturer.

"There has to be an ability on the part of Medicare to negotiate discounts when they're purchasing in bulk," said Representative Welch. "There's a number of things we can do."

On January 5, the House Health Care Committee introduced a bill, S.216, which relates to prescription drug formalities, which was recently passed from the Senate to the House on March 22.

The bill would require health insurance companies in Vermont to provide information on what drugs can be purchased and how much they would cost. It would also require hospitals to provide information on prescription drug costs to hospital-affiliated physicians through the hospital's electronic prescribing system.

Prescription drug prices are even high for pharmacists, and Gauthier's Pharmacy owner and pharmacist Carol Novick thinks the high prices for prescriptions are more because of the insurance companies.

"They're paying me five dollars for a product that costs me five hundred," said Novick. "I think it's more important, at the moment, that the insurance companies are more transparent to providers like myself and as well to the subscribers of the insurance plan."

Novick explained that the difference and high prices are because of people's different insurances. Prescription prices fluctuate because of people's deductibles, and copays.

"Some people are absolutely thrilled when they come to the counter when I say 'it's three dollars,'" Novick said. "Other ones, their bill is one hundred and fifty dollars and that's because they have to meet their deductible."

Novick loves her work, but thinks that times like these are difficult.

Senator Bernie Sanders also introduced a bill in Congress as the Prescription Drug Affordability Act, which would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose how they get their prices.

P-PRESCRIPTION DRUGS from NewsLINC on Vimeo.