If Congress passes a Medicare prescription drug benefit package, how will it affect prices?
Skeptics of the proposals currently before Congress say none of them confront the fundamental issue — Americans continue to pay the highest prices in the world for prescription medication and the federal government has been unwilling to look at discounts. Without getting lower prices for the medications there will not be adequate benefit for all the people who need it. Moreover, say the skeptics, many people won’t be better off with Medicare coverage because of the deductibles and co-payments being considered in the congressional bills. But other observers such as Richard T. Evans, a senior research analyst of global pharmaceuticals at Sanford C. Berstein & Co., see passage of a drug benefit bill as a big blow to the drug industry because it will give the federal government power to dictate drug prices. “The industry is clearly worried about government buying most of the market,” Evans tells FRONTLINE. “Better the government buys it through a bunch of private agents. But at the end of
