It’s Big Pharma’s Turn to Point the Finger

It’s time for another installment of my healthcare blame game series. The series is based on my theory that sectors of the healthcare industry take turns blaming each other for high costs, limited access and poor quality while tacitly agreeing amongst themselves not to really do anything about it.

This segment is brought to you by Big Pharma, which is blaming primarily health insurers, and to a lesser extent providers, for consumer access problems.

The blame is embodied in a report called Access Denied: Patients Speak Out on Insurance Barriers and the Need for Policy Change. The 28-page report is based on a survey of about 2,600 U.S. adults age 18 or older conducted by Ipsos (the market research firm) for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade group representing drug companies.

I cherry-picked some of the “shocking” survey results that support my theory.

• 41% of the respondents said they experienced one or more barriers to accessing medications prescribed by their physicians, including prior authorization requirements and their prescribed drugs not being in their health plan’s drug formulary.
• 51% of the respondents said they can’t anticipate what they’ll pay for their prescription drugs even if they’re covered by their health plan.
• 70% of the respondents said they strongly support requiring hospitals and clinics to publicly disclose how much they mark up the prices that they charge for prescription medication. (If you know any adult not in healthcare who knows providers mark up prices for drugs, let me know.)
• 59% and 54% of the respondents, respectively, said they have unpaid hospital bills and doctors’ bills. (Only 9% said they have unpaid drug bills.)
• 32% of the respondents cited out-of-pocket costs not covered by their health plan as their most important healthcare issue. (Only 16% cited the cost of prescription drugs as their top issue.)
• 80% of the respondents cited reducing inefficiency and bureaucracy in the health system as the best way elected officials can help patients. (Regulating drug prices was not on the list of choices published in the report.)
• 97% of the respondents with at least one chronic disease “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that it’s important to have access to medicines that prevent illness, in addition to those that treat or cure diseases. (Who are the 3% that disagreed with that statement?)

Of course, a lot of the healthcare trade press picked up the story and covered it as news rather than the industry propaganda that it is. The tell is the question the survey asked about whether hospitals should be transparent about how they spend savings from the 340B drug discount program. Like drug mark-ups by providers, your average consumer doesn’t know anything about them unless prompted by a leading survey question from a drug company trade association.

I’ll check that with my mom the next time I’m over. “Mom, these peanut butter cookies are great. Just a little burnt like I like them. What do you think about how hospitals spend their 340B program savings?”

Thanks for reading.

To learn more about this topic, please read:

• “It’s Not Me, It’s You”
• “Health Insurance and Drug Company Execs Must Be Chuckling Over Antitrust Enforcement of Providers”
• “No, It’s Your Turn to Throw Me Under the Healthcare Bus”
• “Playing the Information Blocking Blame Game”