Opinion: Medicaid ‘best price’ approach to drug costs needs an upgrade
The Medicaid best-price law, enacted in 1990, could prevent drug companies and payers from experimenting with value-based drug pricing.
Discussions on access to prescription drugs are back in vogue in the nation’s capital, where the Senate recently convened a fiery hearing on the drug delivery system and President Trump is reiterating a commitment to addressing the cost of prescription drugs. One way to rein in drug costs would be to reduce government interference in arrangements between drug makers and insurers that reward better patient outcomes and lower costs.
Prescription drugs account for about 10 percent of total health care spending, but it is the sector of health care that touches Americans’ lives most deeply and often.
