A recent study done by AHIP, America’s Health Insurance Plans, shows that about 50% of the monthly premium costs associated with each of the Health Insurance plans in America, go to Doctors and Prescription Drugs. 22% goes to doctors and physicians, another 23% goes to Prescription Drug costs. Recently the spotlight by President Trump has been the huge increases in pharmaceutical costs. Trump is trying to control spending at the insurer and pharmacy benefit manager level. Recently pharmaceutical companies are being blamed for “blocking” the availability of Generic Drugs
There is a real problem with allowing generics to be distributed….follow the money
The FDA listed more than 50 drug companies that are actively blocking the generic companies to develop cheaper alternatives. One case in point is the drug Revlimid, a cancer fighting drug. The manufacturer of Revlimid, Celgene Corp, being blamed for what the FDA called “shenanigans”. This one drug, is very lucrative for Celgene, and accounts for about 63% of their revenue. Just to give you an idea of the amount of revenue. Many of these Brand Name Drugs, can be hundreds of millions of dollars for the manufacturer…almost as much as the health care system itself. Folks, something is wrong with this system. What a sham!!
Some of these companies basically have a monopoly on certain drugs
Remember Martin Shkreli, the CEO of the BioTech company Retrophin that jacked up the AIDS drug from $15 a pill to almost $800 and then laughed about it. Well…he’s on his way to prison, for something else, but he is the poster child for “Big Pharma” and what everyone hates. According to multiple sources, Shkreli is even more hated than the dentist that killed Cecil the Lion. This is an extreme example, but you get the picture. We have to figure out a way for Drug Companies to make money, and people have access to the medications they need. This goes way deeper than I have time to write about, but this is not an easy fix. But then, neither is our whole Health Insurance industry we have.
Steve Brauer is the Principal at Brauer Insurance Services, www.brauerinsurance.com (877) 421-4325