A new record has been set for the highest price medication. The newly approved hemophilia drug Hemgenix.
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
Cuts to Medicare in the IRA Bill
Writing in the WSJ, Casey Mulligan and Tomas Philipson point out something that almost all commentary has overlooked. Seniors are about to be hit with a double whammy: higher drug prices at the pharmacy and higher premiums for Part D drug insurance:
We estimate that beginning in 2025, plan subsidies—specifically, the reinsurance subsidies for the beneficiaries with the most drug spending—will be cut $30 billion, out of revenue that currently totals about $110 billion. With $30 billion less to finance prescription benefits, something will have to give. Plans currently have far too little profit to span the chasm that the Inflation Reduction Act opens between expenses and revenue…
This is a nice companion to the article Linda Gorman and I wrote for The Hill a few weeks ago.
Monday Links
- Ross Douthat on Effective Altruism. (recommended)
- Sen. Cassidy becomes the ranking member of the Senate HELP committee. The Democratic Chairman is Bernie Sanders.
- How easy should it be to get an abortion pill?
- Food stamps account for 20% of Coke’s revenues. This is a program that was started, you may remember, as an effort to improve nutrition among low-income families.
- Do antidepressants really work? That’s debatable. (NYT)
- AMA president on Dobbs: “I never imagined colleagues would find themselves tracking down hospital attorneys before performing urgent abortions, when minutes count … asking if a 30% chance of maternal death, or impending renal failure, meet the criteria for the state’s exemptions…”
In fact, life and death decisions are made in hospitals all the time by physicians who know full well that lawyers will be looking over their shoulders. That’s probably not a bad thing.
Biden Not Anxious to Repeal Trump Health Reforms
Donald Trump presided over radical deregulation of our health care system by presidential execution order. Fears that Joe Biden would completely reverse course are proving premature.
Secretary Xavier Becerra wants Congress to take legislative action to permanently expand access to telehealth by enabling HHS to reach rural communities with quality broadband access, working with states to expand interstate telehealth and including behavioral health provisions within telehealth legislation.
InsideHealthPolicy (gated)