Patient cost sharing for prescription drugs: Policy issues
An event from the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Past Event
Panel 1: Revamping the Medicare Part D Benefit Design
Panel 1: Revamping the Medicare Part D Benefit Design
Panel 2: Mechanisms to Reduce Cost Sharing for Commercially Insured Patients
Prescription drug costs continue to grow in the U.S. due to both price hikes for existing drugs and the development of expensive new therapies. In Medicare, these costs now account for $1 out of every $6 in spending . As costs grow, particularly for specialty drugs and novel therapies, patients can face high cost-sharing burdens, and the Medicare benefit places no limit on a patient’s out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs. Moreover, while increased rebates have often mitigated the growth in net drug prices, many patients still pay cost-sharing based on a percentage of the gross (pre-rebate) drug price.
On Friday, February 16, the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy hosted a conference on the policy issues surrounding patient drug cost sharing. Two panels convened, first to discuss restructuring the Medicare Part D benefit design, and then to debate the effectiveness of mechanisms to reduce cost sharing for commercially insured patients.
Agenda
Welcome and Overview
Paul B. Ginsburg
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Panel 1: Revamping the Medicare Part D Benefit Design
Should Medicare beneficiaries' out-of-pocket expenditures be capped?
Paul B. Ginsburg
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Erin Trish
Nonresident Fellow - Economic Studies, USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
President - American Action Forum
Elizabeth Jurinka
Chief Health Advisor (D) - U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Nicholas Uehlecke
Professional Staff Member (R) - U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Health
Panel 2: Mechanisms to Reduce Cost Sharing for Commercially Insured Patients
Geoffrey Joyce
Director of Health Policy - USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, University of Southern California
Chair of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics Department - USC School of Pharmacy
Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy - USC School of Pharmacy
Fiona Scott Morton
Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Economics - Yale School of Management
Elizabeth Fowler
Vice President, Global Health Policy - Johnson & Johnson
Steve Miller
Chief Medical Officer - Express Scripts
Session Materials
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