Until we -- patients -- are ready to forgo drugs because the price is too high, negotiations aren't going to help a whole lot. If Medicare came out and said we aren't going to pay for the relatively new Hepatitis C drug because it is priced too high, folks would riot. Further, that drug probably saves us a lot more in hospital and other care than it's cost.
I think requiring drug companies to post prices in ads would really help. Of course there are other things that weren't discussed, but the words were encouraging. The "truth" probably not very encouraging. I'd like to see everyone covered by insurance too, but that's a different issue.
Fact is, drug costs in England and Canada are definitely less than ours. But they are only 20 to 30% less. If we achieved that it would cut our drug cost from 10% of healthcare expenditures to say 7%. Significant, but not enough to change the fact healthcare expenditures are way to high and unaffordable for far too many including the sick who need it most.
I also think drugs should move to market faster. They do in other countries similar to ours. Putting more drugs OTC will help lower cost. Of course, that also makes them non-covered by many insurance companies.
The healthcare system is a mess. I think a Public Option would really start setting it straight, but I'm not 100% confident about that.
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