Looking at Germany’s Model for Drug Prices

from tHEORetically Speaking: The HealthEconomics.Com Blog at http://bit.ly/2xhVAM6 on June 30, 2019 at 02:54PM

With stakeholders sparring over whether allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with manufacturers is a way to wrangle rising drug prices, Germany’s model could lend some insight into the benefits of direct negotiations, the author of a recent column published on STAT writes.

Germany, University of California, Berkley’s James Robinson writes, uses money generated through “sickness funds,” which cover health costs for about 90 percent of the population, to negotiate with drugmakers to cut costs.

“The German health care system achieves price moderation without the formulary exclusions, prior authorization requirements, and consumer cost sharing used by insurers in the United States,” Robinson writes. “Its structure and processes offer potentially significant insights for drug policy discussions, and for Medicare price negotiations, in the United States.”

To read the full write up, click here.