Health affairs
-
Comparative Study
Compared to US practice, evidence-based reviews in Europe appear to lead to lower prices for some drugs.
In Europe drug reimbursement decisions often weigh how new drugs perform relative to those already on the market and how cost-effective they are relative to certain metrics. In the United States such comparative-effectiveness and cost-effectiveness evidence is rarely considered. Which approach allows patients greater access to drugs? In 2000-11 forty-one oncology drugs were approved for use in the United States and thirty-one were approved in Europe. ⋯ Relative to the approach used in the US Medicare program in particular, the European evidence-based approach appears to have led to reduced prices for those drugs deemed worthy of approval and reimbursement. The result is improved affordability for payers and increased access for patients to those drugs that were available. The United States lacks a systematic approach to assessing such evidence in the coverage decision-making process, which may prove inadequate for controlling costs, improving outcomes, and reducing inequities in access to care.
-
Historically, the Israeli health care system has been considered a high-performance system, providing universal, affordable, high-quality care to all residents. However, a decline in the ratio of physicians to population that reached a modern low in 2006, an approximate ten-percentage-point decline in the share of publicly financed health care between 1995 and 2009, and legislative mandates that favored private insurance have altered Israel's health care system for the worse. ⋯ Additionally, many publicly paid physicians moonlight at private facilities to earn more money. In this article I recommend that Israel increase public funding for health care and adopt reforms to address the rising demand for privately funded care and the problem of publicly paid physicians who moonlight at private facilities.
-
Since the 1990s some European countries have had regulated health insurance exchanges or have incorporated elements of exchange markets into their health systems. Health reforms in Switzerland and the Netherlands in 1996 and 2006, respectively, created managed competition in the countries' health insurance markets, which are somewhat analogous to the US state and federally operated health insurance exchanges scheduled to begin operations in 2013 under the Affordable Care Act. We review the Swiss and Dutch experience with exchanges and offer specific lessons for the US exchanges. ⋯ Third, applying for subsidies must be simple. Fourth, insurers will need bargaining power similar to that of providers to create a level playing field for negotiating about prices and quality of services, and interim cost containment measures may be necessary. Fifth and finally, insurers and consumers alike will need meaningful information about providers' costs and quality of care so they can become prudent purchasers of health services, since managed competition among health plans by itself will not substantially drive down health costs.
-
Reimbursement contracts, in which health insurers receive rebates from drug manufacturers instead of paying the transparent list price, are becoming increasingly common worldwide. Through interviews with policy makers in nine high-income countries, we describe the use of these contracts around the globe and identify related policy challenges and best practices. Of the nine countries surveyed, the majority routinely use confidential reimbursement contracts. ⋯ Payers face increased administrative costs, difficulties enforcing contracts, and reduced information about prices paid by others. Among the best practices identified, policy makers recommend establishing clear and consistent processes for negotiating contracts with relatively simple rebate structures and transparency to the public about the existence, purpose, and type of reimbursement contracts in place. Policy makers should also work to address undesirable price disparities within their countries and internationally, which may occur as a result of this new pricing paradigm.
-
Comparative Study
Higher US branded drug prices and spending compared to other countries may stem partly from quick uptake of new drugs.
The United States spends considerably more per capita on prescription drugs than other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Drawing on the Intercontinental Medical Statistics Midas database, we examined the variation in drug prices among selected OECD countries in 2005, 2007, and 2010 to determine which country paid the highest prices for brand-name drugs, what factors led to variation in per capita drug spending, and what factors contributed to the rate of increase in drug spending. ⋯ In contrast, the other OECD countries employed mechanisms such as health technology assessment and restrictions on patients' eligibility for new prescription drugs, and they required strict evidence of the value of new drugs. Similarly, US health care decision makers could consider requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide more evidence about the value of new drugs in relation to the cost and negotiating prices accordingly.