In Washington’s Drug Price Fight, Plenty of Blame to Go Around; Bloomberg, 10/27/16

Anna Edney, Robert Langreth, Bloomberg; In Washington’s Drug Price Fight, Plenty of Blame to Go Around:

"AARP, which represents seniors, is part of the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, along with Anthem Inc., one of the U.S.’s biggest health insurers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. The coalition has proposed having drugmakers submit for government review any price increases over 10 percent, and making it easier for generics to come to market.

Health insurers, who just six years ago were painted as villains during the passage of Obamacare, are relishing the turnabout now that drugmakers are the focus.

“These increases have got to stop,” said John Bennett, chief executive officer of Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan Inc., or CDPHP, a not-for-profit health insurer in Albany, New York. Last year, 22 percent of the premiums Capital took in for its commercial plans was spent on drugs.

“They are unsustainable for us as a society and they are morally wrong,” Bennett said in a telephone interview. “They are extracting profit out of a scarce resource that people need to survive.”