No Reason for This--Other Than Greed,' Says Sanders as GAO Shows Medicare Pays Twice as Much

[turbinetree]

VA for Same Drugs

Published on
Thursday, January 14, 2021
by Common Dreams

"We can no longer allow the pharmaceutical industry to rip-off the more than 40 million people who receive prescription drug coverage through Medicare Part D and fleece U.S. taxpayers."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

?itok=3JLCez4M

A new report commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders shows that Medicare Part D in 2017 paid twice as much as the Department of Veterans Affairs for the same prescription medicines, a finding the Vermont senator characterized as further evidence of the need to "take on the greed" of Big Pharma and empower the federal government to negotiate drug prices.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) study (pdf) released Thursday found that in a "sample of 399 brand-name and generic prescription drugs, the V.A. paid an average of 54% less per unit than Medicare, even after taking into account rebates and discounts."

The report found that the VA paid at least 50% less for 233 of the 399 drugs examined, and at least 75% less for 106 of the medicines.

"The programs pay for drugs differently," the GAO explains. "Medicare reimburses the Part D plan sponsors to pay pharmacies, but the VA buys drugs directly from manufacturers. The V.A. may be able to get lower prices because it can... negotiate as a single health system with a unified list of covered drugs [and] use discounts defined by law that Medicare doesn't have."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/14/no-reason-other-greed-says-sanders-gao-shows-medicare-pays-twice-much-va-same-drugs

Well we will see with a new congress in town who someone is for, people like me on a limited budget Medicare Part D or the drug companies.............

[kacekwl]

1. Pharmaceuticals and insurance companies need to have an ultimatum presented to them.

Either they get their prices and policies in line or they will face "socialist" health care and the consequences. We have to fix this and stop them from harming and ultimately killing Americans.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

21. Insulin vials need to go back to being 8 bucks a piece

[Wounded Bear]

2. Repubs specifically disallowed MediCare from negotiating drug prices...

I get mine through VA, and they're pretty cheap. I'm lucky, I use mostly generics for my needs but still, Part D was always a ripoff for Big Pharma.

[cojoel]

3. The should not negotiate separately from the VA

They should pay the same rates the VA has already negotiated.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Yeah, well, that would make sense and save taxpayers money...

That's why Repubs didn't allow it in the original Part D bill.

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[JoeOtterbein]

6. K n R ! Thanks for posting! nt

[iluvtennis]

7. KnR. Greedy bastards. Same with medical insurance. During the dot com bust in 2000, but

my husband and I got laid off and had to get medical insurance for the kids and ourselves.

Blue Shield medical insurance through non employer charged twice as much for medical procedures (e.g., kid to see to see pediatrician for a well care check) than they had charged through our prior employer insurance plan.

A medical procedure is a medical procedure, doctor does the same thing irrespective of the type of insurance you have.

Our medical insurance system here in US is just nuts.

[George II]

8. Why is a report on drug prices in 2017 now coming out in January 2021, days before the inauguration?

Wouldn't it make more sense to compare VA vs. Medicare drug prices in 2019 or 2020? Perhaps the difference today isn't as drastic?

[KPN]

10. The report came out in mid-December 2020 according to the report. The data it looked at were 2017

drug costs because that was the most recent available data at the time, also according to the report.

[George II]

13. I saw that, so the report is essentially obsolete even before it was released. Inasmuch as prices...

....are negotiated the year before they go into effect, we're now discussing a report using data that is more than FOUR years (prices for 2017 are set in 2016)

A lot has gone on since the end of 2016.

[KPN]

14. I can only go by my personal anecdotal data. Drug prices have not gone down in the past

3 or 4 years.

I don't find the lag in data availability to be all that unusual.

[George II]

17. My copays have actually gone down in the last few years. Two weeks ago (first time in 2021)....

...I got 3-months supply of my two medications (liptor and lisinopril). The total cost was $5.36. I was shocked. That's less than $1 per month for each.

When I first went on Medicare about seven years ago one was $12 per month, I forget the other but certainly more than $1.

[KPN]

18. Well, that's a good thing. Can't argue with that.

[George II]

20. Yes. And my premiums (both for Medicare and supplement) have gone up minimally since 2013....

Combined they were about $130 per month. They're now about $180, but that's over 8 years. Medicare went up about $25 this year, that's on trump. Our supplements are only $4 higher than 2013 (a couple of years the actually went down)

[cbdo2007]

9. medical costs and drug costs need to be investigated extensively

with prices for all services and drugs listed publicly.

[mjvpi]

11. This is a great example of why Senator Sanders has such ardent supporters.

The "invisible hand" the free market thinkers use to justify no government control is, as far as I can tell, the aggregate of consumer decision making. Essentially economic democracy. So isn’t a democratically organized government the perfect vehicle to organize consumers, culminating in their implicit marketplace vote. That’s what Sanders calls Democratic Socialism and what Senator Warren advocates with her consumers first Capitalism. We have to save Capitalism from itself. This is the way to cut government spending.

[George II]

15. So then, as a member of Congress for now more than 30 years, what has he done to resolve this?

[mjvpi]

19. Isn't that what this post is about?

He has represented his constituency in a manner that they approve of for thirty years, correct? As far as I can tell he is an FDR pro labor Democrat in every way but self specified designation. Over those thirty years he has been a very consistent Democratic vote, more so than the Blue Dog Dems.

I have voted with FDR values, for Democrats for 45 years. I watched my party consistently compromise to the right since Reagan. Senator Sanders, while not single handedly responsible, has done more than most to reignite the spirit of the New Deal and move the political center back towards what I consider my core Democratic values. He has built a powerful soapbox with unwavering convictions.

That being said, I was a Warren supporter. I am not a Bernie Bro. I proudly supported Joe Biden as did Senator Sanders.

[Yeehah]

12. Thanks to Sen. Sanders for shining a light on this RIPOFF!

Thanks for fighting for us, Sen. Sanders!

[BobTheSubgenius]

16. Would anyone here have the nerve to do that, and so openly and easily-discerned?

Just having a pricing structure like that should be criminal, let alone actually killing people with the industry's greed.