\n\tMichelle Andrews<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, in some cases 10 times more than the people of any other country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in an April 30, 2023, interview on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whether in Congress or as a presidential candidate, has always taken strong positions<\/a> against the high cost of prescription drugs. Since becoming the chair of the influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee<\/a> this year, he\u2019s made lowering drug costs a top priority.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s therefore not surprising that the senator would, during a recent Sunday morning TV interview, rail against high drug prices in the United States and compare what Americans pay with what people in other countries must fork over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, in some cases 10 times more than the people of any other country,\u201d Sanders said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d last month.<\/p>\n

After all, it is a popular political talking point. But 10 times as much? That was a bit of a head-snapper. We decided to check it out.<\/p>\n

A Complicated Market<\/strong><\/p>\n

We first asked the senator\u2019s office for the documents to support Sanders\u2019 claims. But our repeated requests went unacknowledged.<\/p>\n

So, we started digging around on our own. What we found was that, as expected, Sanders was right in asserting that drug prices in the United States generally exceed those in other countries. The magnitude of the difference, however, varies depending on the drugs and the countries included in the comparison, among other factors.<\/p>\n

And no matter how the studies we examined sliced the data, the drug price difference almost never reached Sanders\u2019 stated level. Still, experts told us his point has merit. \u201cI think the quote is on target, if a bit vague in scope,\u201d said Andrew Mulcahy, a senior health economist at the Rand Corp., a global policy think tank.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, the oft-cited 2021 study by Rand<\/a> that found, based on 2018 figures, drug prices in the U.S. were on average 2.56 times the drug prices in 32 other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development<\/a> countries. These are mostly high-income, developed nations. For brand-name drugs, the gap was even bigger: Americans paid 3.44 times the prices for those drugs, on average. But the opposite was true for generic drugs, for which Americans paid just 84% of what people in other countries studied paid. One exception: Turkey. U.S. drug prices were nearly eight times those in Turkey overall, and 10.5 times those for brand-name drugs.<\/p>\n

Mulcahy, a co-author of the report<\/a>, said that although the ratio across all drugs typically doesn\u2019t reach Sanders\u2019 \u201c10 times\u201d mark, \u201cfor some drugs it gets close, if you look at the manufacturer\u2019s list price.\u201d<\/p>\n

The manufacturer price, though, is not necessarily the best measure \u2014 especially if the idea is to capture what consumers are paying.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because it doesn\u2019t reflect the rebates and other discounts negotiated by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers that can lower a drug\u2019s retail price. Most people with health insurance are paying prices that include these discounts. The Rand researchers used the manufacturer price, though, because the discounts are confidential and it\u2019s hard to quantify how they affect net prices, the report noted.<\/p>\n

Other studies have found smaller \u2014 though still significant \u2014 gaps than Sanders cited. In 2021, the Government Accountability Office released a comparative analysis of the prices<\/a> of 20 brand-name drugs in the United States, Canada, Australia, and France. The study, commissioned by Sanders<\/a> himself, found that retail prices were more than 2 to 4 times what they were in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Another analysis<\/a>, this one by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, compared the prices of seven brand-name drugs in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, and likewise found that some U.S. prices were roughly 2 to 4 times as high as those in other countries. But for other drugs the gap was smaller.<\/p>\n

The drugs tracked in this analysis \u201ctend to be specialty drugs and expensive no matter where you buy them,\u201d said Cynthia Cox, director of the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, who co-authored the analysis.<\/p>\n

Because the United States doesn\u2019t directly regulate drug prices as many other countries do, some prices here are more expensive. In 2019, the United States spent $1,126 per person on prescription drugs, including $963 by health plans and $164 that people spent out-of-pocket, according to a KFF analysis of OECD data. Spending by comparable countries was $552 per capita, including $466 by health plans and $88 in out-of-pocket spending by individuals.<\/p>\n

Experts added, though, that price is only one element that affects overall prescription drug spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re spending more, part of that might be because we\u2019re paying higher prices, but it also might be because we\u2019re using more medication,\u201d said Cox.<\/p>\n

And Then There Is Insulin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where Sanders could find support for his statement, according to Mulcahy, is in insulin prices. A Rand study done in 2020 for the Health and Human Services\u2019 Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation compared 2018 insulin prices<\/a> in the United States with those in 32 other OECD countries. Their findings: The average U.S. manufacturer price for a standard unit of insulin sold domestically was more than 10 times the international price, $98.70 in the U.S. versus $8.81 in the OECD sample.<\/p>\n

Such statistics have triggered a somewhat partisan<\/a> rallying cry to address drug costs. The price of insulin has been the subject of congressional hearings, including one this month<\/a> convened by Sanders.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, capping insulin costs at $35 a month for Medicare recipients was a signature win for President Joe Biden<\/a> in the Inflation Reduction Act. Members of Congress, Sanders among them<\/a>, want to slash insulin prices further. In a press release announcing a bill he introduced with Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) that would prohibit manufacturers from charging more than $20 per vial of insulin, Sanders said, \u201cThere is no reason why Americans should pay the highest prices in the world for insulin \u2014 in some cases, ten times as much as people in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our Ruling<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Sanders said that Americans \u201cpay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,\u201d he was on target. But his \u201c10 times more\u201d figure is off. Though that comparison may be accurate for some individual drugs or classes of drugs \u2014 and he did temper his comment by saying \u201cin some cases\u201d \u2014 it exaggerates overall differences in prices, which are generally higher here but not 10 times those in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

A well-known exception is insulin: The price in the U.S. has been shown to be 10 times as high as in other countries.<\/p>\n

But even this determination is complicated. Studies that showed a tenfold spread in prices for insulin drugs referred to manufacturer prices, which don\u2019t take discounts into account. But that\u2019s a misleading comparison because most people don\u2019t actually pay manufacturer prices.<\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019 statement certainly contains elements of truth but also doesn\u2019t provide all the necessary information or context. We rate it Half True.<\/p>\n

sources:<\/h4>\nFriends of Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders on the Issues<\/a>, accessed May 8, 2023<\/p>\n
Sen. Bernie Sanders, \u201c Bernie Sanders In Line to Chair Influential Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor<\/a>,\u201d Nov. 17, 2022<\/p>\n
Rand Corp., \u201c Prescription Drug Prices in the United States Are 2.56 Times Those in Other Countries<\/a>,\u201d Jan. 28, 2021<\/p>\n
Rand Corp., \u201c Comparing Insulin Prices in the U.S. to Other Countries<\/a>,\u201d September 2020<\/p>\n
JAMA, \u201c Estimated Savings From International Reference Pricing for Prescription Drugs<\/a>,\u201d Sept. 10, 2021<\/p>\n
Government Accountability Office, \u201c Prescription Drugs: U.S. Prices for Selected Brand Drugs Were Higher on Average Than Prices in Australia, Canada, and France<\/a>,\u201d March 29, 2021<\/p>\n
Sen. Bernie Sanders, \u201c News: New GAO Study Finds U.S. Pays Two to Four Times More for Prescription Drugs Than Other Nations<\/a>,\u201d April 28, 2021<\/p>\n
Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, \u201c How Do Prescription Drug Costs in the United States Compare to Other Countries?<\/a>\u201d Feb. 8, 2022<\/p>\n
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, \u201c News: Sanders and Cassidy Announce Bipartisan Deal to Lower Prescription Drug Prices<\/a>,\u201d April 25, 2023<\/p>\n
Sen. Bernie Sanders, \u201c News: Following Successful Public Pressure Campaign to Lower the Cost of Eli Lilly\u2019s Insulin, Sanders and Bush Introduce Bill to Finish the Job and Cap the Price at $20 per Vial<\/a>,\u201d March 9, 2023<\/p>\n
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, \u201c Full Committee Hearing: The Need to Make Insulin Affordable for All Americans<\/a>,\u201d accessed May 8, 2023<\/p>\n
Stat, \u201c Disagreements and Digs Upend an Otherwise Bipartisan Hearing on PBM Reform<\/a>,\u201d May 2, 2023<\/p>\n
Health Care Cost Institute, International Health Cost Comparison Report<\/a>, July 2022<\/p>\n
Interviews with Andrew Mulcahy, senior policy researcher at the Rand Corp., May 5 and 10, 2023<\/p>\n
Interviews with Cynthia Cox, vice president and director of the Program on the ACA at KFF and director of the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker Project, May 5 and 9, 2023<\/p>\n
Interview with Lovisa Gustafsson, vice president at the Commonwealth Fund, May 5, 2023<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michelle Andrews \u201cWe pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, in some cases 10 times more than the people of any other country.\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in an April 30, 2023, interview on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whether in Congress or as a presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pharmaceuticals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1288,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions\/1288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}