Checking Unchecked Rx Prices

Unchecked drug price increases hit both patients and hospitals hard. Since 2008, brand name drugs prices have increased 127 percent compared with an 11 percent rise in consumer prices. These increases cut deep into both hospital budgets and services and undermine patient and community health, particularly when patients cannot afford to take their medicines. These increases are simply unsustainable. This week, we joined the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing in support of policy principles designed to help find solutions to high drug prices. These solutions seek to preserve innovation and ensure affordability by increasing transparency, promoting competition and realizing more value. Rising drug prices, their impact and implications are also on the agenda next week at the AHA’s Annual Meeting as the focus of a May 2 Executive Briefing. The time for action is now. As much as anyone, the women and men who work in hospitals recognize the value of innovative, lifesaving medicines but a drug priced beyond our – or a patient’s reach – cannot save anyone’s life.