Unique issues raised by drug benefit design.
In this Perspective on the preceding paper by Joseph Newhouse, I point out a number of features of the pharmaceutical industry that differentiate it from other health care sectors. These differences help explain why it has proved to be so very difficult to construct policies that simultaneously contain health care costs, provide patients with high-quality care, and generate continued incentives for innovation. I then summarize Newhouse's preferred Medicare prescription drug benefit program and the issues it raises.
Berndt
Ernst R
ER
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P Sloan School of Management, Program on Technological Progress and Productivity Measurement, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
D003363:Cost Control; D006801:Humans; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D006278:Medicare; D009042:Motivation; D011050:Policy Making; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States