Prescriptions for Savings

As health costs rise, consumers struggle to access health care coverage, services, and treatment. In fact, because costs are rising faster than wages, a dangerous gap continues to widen between health care needs and what can reasonably be afforded. As policymakers look for solutions to address rising costs for treatment, it is important for Congress to adopt policies and incentives that are firmly rooted in patient- and market-oriented solutions that promote access to treatment, value, competition and innovation.

Despite spirited debate from all areas of the health care system and in Washington, we have yet to see a consensus-based approach that engages a wide range of affected stakeholders in a concerted effort to address drug costs and overall health care spending. In this paper we propose a set of positive, common sense policy solutions to address the issues around prescription drug access and affordability. These proposals are broken into four broad categories: better coverage; pay for value; better markets and competition; and improved transparency.