ObamaCare and Drug Poverty

Hard as it is to believe, there is yet another price spike coming courtesy of ObamaCare. Avalere Health, a market and healthcare research firm, estimates that some consumers will pay as much as half the cost of so-called “specialty drugs” under health overhaul-related plans. By comparison, consumers in private plans typically pay no more than a third of those costs. ”There’s a significant percentage of plans who are using coinsurance of 50 percent or higher,” said Caroline Pearson, who tracks the health care overhaul for Avalere Health. “It is generally a lot higher than what we see in private insurance.”

A study by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) revealed that while only 1 percent of drug prescriptions written in 2012 were for specialty drugs such as Avastin, a cancer drug, or Letairis, used to medicate hypertension, they accounted for 25 percent of the total costs associated with prescription drugs. It’s not hard to see why. The average cost per patient for Avasitn is $11,000 per year. Letairis costs a whopping $32,000 per patient per annum. ”Spending on specialty drugs is growing rapidly. It’s unsustainable,” said Clare Krusing, spokeswoman for AHIP.

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