Drug licenses: a new model for pharmaceutical pricing.
High drug prices are a major barrier to patients' access to drugs and compliance with treatment. Yet low drug prices are often argued to provide inadequate incentives for innovation. We propose a drug-licensing model for health care, which has the promise of increasing drug use without altering patients' out-of-pocket spending, health plans' costs, or drug companies' profits. In such a model, people would purchase annual drug licenses that would guarantee unfettered access to a clinically optimal number of prescriptions over the course of a year. Using the example of statins, we illustrate how such a model could be implemented.
Goldman
Dana P
DP
Bing Center for Health Economics, RAND, Santa Monica, California, USA. dgoldman@rand.org
Jena
Anupam B
AB
Philipson
Tomas
T
Sun
Eric
E
D004345:Drug Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000191:economics / Q000600:supply & distribution; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services; D008004:Licensure / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D018803:Models, Economic; D011306:Prescription Fees / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States
D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors