Curing Hepatitis C - U.S. Health Care System Is 'Penny Wise & Pound Foolish'

U.S. Health Care System Is 'Penny Wise & Pound Foolish'

Thu, 05/29/2014 - 2:58pm

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) President and CEO John Castellani released the following statement on the cost and value of medicines:

“It is penny wise and pound foolish to focus solely on the price of a new medicine while completely ignoring the value it provides to patients and the health care system broadly. Curing Hepatitis C not only dramatically improves patients’ lives, but has the potential to save the U.S. health care system as much as $9 billion per year by preventing expensive hospitalizations and avoiding thousands of liver transplants that routinely cost over $500,000 each. The health improvements and cost-savings new medicines provide explain why, despite repeated claims to the contrary, prescription drug spending continues to be a small and declining share of overall health care cost growth – a reality that often gets ignored in the public debate about drug costs.

“The increased attention on the cost of new medicines is being fueled by the fact that we have an outdated insurance model that is forcing patients to pay an ever-growing share of their prescription drug costs. Insurers are increasingly imposing unprecedented cost-sharing on patients that deters them from utilizing the medicines they need to manage – or even cure – their disease while covering the vast majority of costs of more expensive hospitalizations and services these medicines could prevent. We have a Blockbuster insurance model in a Netflix world and patients are being harmed as a result.

“The country needs to have a much broader discussion on how to best create a more sustainable, 21st century health care system that protects patients and incentivizes the development of new treatments that can do for other diseases what medicines have done for HIV, Hepatitis C, and many forms of cancer.”

Date: May 29, 2014
Source: PhRMA