
Drug Prices Will Soon Appear in Many TV Ads - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/us/politics/drug-prices-tv-advertisements.html
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hackeraccount
The entirety of the health care system in the U.S. is setup to hide the price
of health care. Insurance companies are required to cover drugs without regard
to the price. Dr's - who should be the patients advocate in all things
including the cost - are willfully ignorant. And then you end up with a person
who fully understands that the price on the tin and what they pay out of
pocket may very well bear no relation to each other. Indeed there's an
expectation that it will all be paid for by insurance. Which is the Dr's
expectation as well - explaining why Dr's care not a jot about price.
Insurance companies themselves might care but it's not like they have a choice
in what they cover - that's dictated to them by politicians who will follow
whatever they have to do for the sake of a vote at the ballot box.

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pkaye
Insurance companies care a lot of drug prices since they pay a bulk of it. For
example a 20% copay is not uncommon for expensive drugs to encourage use of
cheaper generics. Drug companies in turn provide copay assistance so consumer
are less concerned about the high prices they charge the insurers. The drug
companies in turn raise prices to cover the assistance. Meanwhile those
without insurance coverage are left high and dry.

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donarb
Here’s the link to the document that describes the rule. Basically requires
disclosure of list price if it costs more than $35/month for an average
regimen. Price must be posted in a readable font and also be announced
verbally. Companies are allowed to mention competitor’s prices for comparison
purposes.

[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/05/10/2019-09...](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/05/10/2019-09655/medicare-
and-medicaid-programs-regulation-to-require-drug-pricing-transparency)

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lurquer
It will make 0 difference... You can have the announcer rattle off side-
effects that would make your skin crawl, but as long as there is a cheerful
beautiful woman jogging or gardening or lounging in a hammock with gentle CGI
butterflies flitting sround, your brain will tune it all out.

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thedailymail
If the price tag is $4 million it will take a very cheerful and beautiful
person to distract people!

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-sma-insight/u-s-
be...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-sma-insight/u-s-benefits-
manager-baulks-after-novartis-values-gene-therapy-at-4-5-million-
idUSKCN1NS0CX)

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pcurve
This is step in the right direction but just like the side effect disclaimers
I think most people will get desensitized to it.

I don't know why there is so much focus on drugs though lately. Biggest costs
are on the medical side.

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taborj
> the side effect disclaimers I think most people will get desensitized to it.

A bit unrelated, but this is entirely intentional on the part of the drug
makers. Closely pay attention to the next drug commercial you see. During the
part where they're listing the (usually severe) side effects, all you'll see
on screen are happy people on sunny days doing active things. They're using a
bit of psychology to trick you into marginalizing the side effects.

It'll be interesting to see how they treat drug prices, but I'm glad we're at
least heading down the right path.

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tonyedgecombe
In the UK drug companies aren’t allowed to advertise prescription drugs.

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GordonS
I never understood why this was a thing in the US - surely it's doctors that
make the decision about what medicationa are needed?

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anticensor
US lacks replacement of equipotent drugs.

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TheAdamist
Or they'll cleverly not be an ad for that drug, but have you talk to your
doctor about hepC, where the only drug that they could be talking about, but
never mention, is over $100k.

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didgeoridoo
> Drugmakers have been resistant to advertising list prices, saying it's
> simply the price that's advertised, and not what consumers actually pay.

Jeez guys, you’re supposed to hide the ball a little bit!

In seriousness, this probably won’t have much of an effect. Insurance
companies decide what they’re going to pay, which has little to do with the
sticker price. Consumers, for their part, do not generally pay out-of-pocket
for drug regimens at all — if they are rich enough to pay without being
bankrupted, they’re rich enough to be insured.

~~~
pkaye
> Consumers, for their part, do not generally pay out-of-pocket for drug
> regimens at all

That is not true for the real expensive drugs where insurance companies expect
a large copay. Something like 20% copay on a $2000/month drug is common even
of high quality insurance plans.

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mrosett
Frequently drug companies provide coupon programs to cap this.

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thatoneuser
Well that took long enough

