Question

should the United States consider other methods for controlling drug pricing, such as those used in some European countries

Answer 1

Of course, not every solution that works well in another country could be easily applied here. But strategies used abroad could help inform U. S efforts to control rising health care cost and make life saving drugs more affordable and accessible. Public opinion surveys show that most Americans are deeply concerned about rising drug prices .That's not surprising, overall we spend twice as much on drugs as our counterparts in other developed countries. For example ,in 2015 an American patient and insurer could expect to pay about $2670 for a months supply of adalimumab. A patient and insurer in United kingdom would pay about $1360 for same supply of same drug;in switzerland , about $820.

That's because while drug prices in united states have continued to rise with insurance companies and public programs such as medicare and medicaid struggling to rein in the cost.

In 29 of 31 European countries, the health care systems consider a drug's price in other countries when determining what they are willing to pay for it. Use of such model could lead to short term cost savings for medicare in united states. However the effect could diminish since drug makers could increase list prices around the world and then enter into agreements with payers to provide confidential discounts and rebates.

Internal bench marking, value based benchmarking, off label uses.. etc, used by other countries could offer lessons.