Drug Cost is the Public Health Priority  

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently polled Americans to identify their health care priorities for the next President and Congress. At the top of the list were issues related to prescription drug costs – specifically, making sure drugs to treat chronic conditions are affordable for consumers (74%) and government action to lower drug prices (63%). From an employer’s perspective, the latter is more important, as it would manage the total cost of the drug rather than simply limiting a member's out-of-pocket expense, which just shifts cost back to the plan. While drug prices will be a hot topic for lawmakers and the regulators to address when new leaders take office in January, employers might not want to wait and hope. Over the next five years, it is expected that 40 new specialty drugs will hit the market each year. Now is the time to develop a strategy to get in front of that influx of new high-cost drugs.

Go to full article: kff.org