The drug industry is trying to thwart a crucial federal drug discount program called 340B that serves to help healthcare facilities and community health centers across the country supply lower-cost medications and enhanced services to underserved patients.
The industry's profiteering has garnered the interest of Congress, insurance companies and patients. Per-unit costs on specialty drugs increased 12 percent last year, according to Express Scripts. A database organized by Bloomberg News shows the constant price increases of leading drugs throughout the previous 7 years. An EpiPen for allergic reactions climbed 222 percent. A single dosage of the medicine Benicar for hypertension is up 164 percent. The high-cholesterol drug Crestor jumped 103 percent each tablet.
Against this backdrop, the drug industry has marshaled an army of lobbyists to go to battle against poor, underserved Americans and the medical facilities that serve them. Congress created the 340B drug discount program in 1992 with bipartisan support to enable health providers that serve large numbers of low-income individuals to obtain affordable drugs from drug companies. Consequently, these safety-net health centers and clinics supply low-priced or no-cost medications to the community. The program also helps fund diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cancer, dental and primary-care facilities.
Affordable drugs are the key to improving wellness outcomes. When drug costs get too high, individuals skip doses or pass up buying prescriptions altogether. According to a study from the Commonwealth Fund, the United States leads the world in this respect, with one-quarter of adults choosing to go without their medications. Their wellness often deteriorates, and several end up back in the ER, mostly on the taxpayer's dime.
Everybody concurs, even John Castellani, CEO of the industry trade association PhRMA. In a recent interview with Kaiser Health News, he said individuals' "out-of-pocket expenses are potentially so high that we have to be concerned about whether or not people will be able to afford to continue to get their medicines.".
In fairness, Castellani was actually grumbling about high prescription deductibles in a few plans furnished under the Affordable Care Act. But what about the destructive impact of his own industry's expensive medications? Here, Big Pharma dodges accountability and conveniently selects profits over people.
With too much partisan squabbling in Washington, it is vital to keep in mind there actually are programs that not only function but enjoy bipartisan backing. The 340B program is one of them. Yes, the program is funded at the expense of extra profits by the drug companies. More important, it allows health centers and clinics to assist poor Americans stay healthier, and it actually saves taxpayer money by keeping people out of the hospital.
Big Pharma will assert that several medical facilities don't provide adequate charity care and should not be in the program. That's rubbish. It ignores the massive $28 billion in unremunerated treatment these providers bear each year to care for the underprivileged.
The 340B program helps safety-net health centers provide economical prescriptions and treatments to disadvantaged outpatients. Pharmaceutical companies are definitely raising their prices. As the cost of drugs soars, the program becomes more essential than ever. If we do not stop the pharmaceutical industry's attempts to kill it, the casualties will be America's poor and the hospitals that treat them.
www.center-rx.com/340b/pharmaceutical-costs-soar-drug-industry-attacks-340b-discount-program
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