Big Pharma Getting Scared for Halloween

It’s going to be a tough Halloween for the drug companies. HHS Secretary Alex Azar and this administration wants them to post their list prices in consumer ads.  Will it help? Not sure. It will expose the scam of back room deals that go on in this industry, however.  The only one who pays full price is the cash paying customer.  The drug companies are panicking and are worrying that the high list price would scare patients away.  Agreed.  Then why list them so high in the first place?  Listen to these idiots try to fight their case:

• “Such a requirement would not benefit patients, could have the unintended and harmful consequence of deterring patients from seeking care and would raise legal concerns,” the industry’s major trade group PhRMA warned HHS this summer.
• Policy experts also are skeptical that the proposal will do much to rein in high prices, since drugmakers’ list prices are mostly used as a starting point for negotiations with other health care payers and few patients are asked to pay them. They also have cautioned that it could affect public health by discouraging the use of some medicines.
• “The price of a drug has absolutely no relation to the cost for a consumer,” said Dale Cooke, a consultant who specializes in drug advertisements and has been a vocal critic of the government’s plan. He also cautioned that an ad containing a high list price could scare away patients who will assume they can’t afford the cost of the drug, even if their health insurance would pick up most of the cost. “That would potentially be tragic,” Cooke said.

These excuses are just laughable.  Maybe, just maybe, a price tag for a medication shouldn’t be a “trick or treat”?  Maybe they shouldn’t treat medication prices like automobile prices?  Getting a medication shouldn’t be like going to a  car dealership.

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