International Comparison of Drug Spending

[vuk]

Annual retail prescription drug spending per person...

"Prices are a lot higher for brand-name drugs in the United States because we lack the widespread policies to limit drug prices that many other countries have."

article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/upshot/why-prescription-drug-spending-higher-in-the-us.html

i thought the gap between US and canada was actually larger, but we keep electing economically right-wing governments -- code word "business-friendly"


btw -- what happened to my amazon thread? did someone say something offensive?

 

[Tony L]

what happened to my amazon thread? did someone say something offensive?

It just wasn’t appropriate given pfm relies on Amazon affiliate linking etc to survive. Please free to use your own site for such content!

 

[vuk]

It just wasn’t appropriate given pfm relies on Amazon affiliate linking etc to survive.

that seems rather over-the-top. even the mainstream are talking about the "scandal" at this point.

 

[Seeker_UK]

I'm sure that the US regulations around drug pricing are having a huge effect on price but the graph doesn't show that.

IMHO, one of the reasons is that spend is sky-rocketing is that medics now give drugs for everything rather than looking at fixing the causes. In the UK for instance, the NHS now spends something like 16% of its annual budget on drugs for Type 2 diabetes. Why?

• There is little resource to provide the longer-term support many conditions could benefit from so it's easier to give drugs.
• GPs can meet their 5 minutes per patient KPI only by drugs or (or referral).
• GPs too scared to not give drugs - risk averse.
• People are essentially lazy and expect a pharmaceutical easy / quick fix.
• Can't get people into hospital to replace knees or hips or other debilitating but non-urgent conditions so keep dishing out the painkillers.
• Over medication. My dad was forever being put on another drug to fix the side-effects of the cocktail he was on. It took a drugs audit but they take time (see points above).

 

[Joe P]

Keep in mind that some countries and provinces also have universal pharmacare, so that will lower drug costs out of pocket. My province was heading in that direction until we elected Rob Ford’s brother as premiere.

Joe