What Rick Scott’s pharmaceutical plan would mean to you
Bottom Line: There’s near universal agreement, regardless of political persuasion, that prescription drug prices are a huge issue in the lives of many families. Getting to a solution is more complicated. Recently Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis began his crusade to attempt to enable Floridians to import prescription drugs from Canada. My initial analysis on the top drugs used by Floridians indicated potential savings of 20-25% should that come to fruition. That’s one potential path forward but it obviously would only impact Floridians. President Trump tabbed a few members of Congress recently to draft plans for consideration federally to achieve cost savings. Senator Rick Scott was one of those asked by the president given his background in healthcare. Last week he unveiled the details. Here’s what’s in the Transparent Drug Pricing Act.
- Would mandate that manufactures offer drugs in the US at the average price of other countries
- Would mandate that pharmacies provide customers with what the “cash price” of those drugs would be independent of insurance plans
What would it mean to you? The greater the transparency, the better the opportunity for consumer price competition on prescriptions. If we ever get to the day where popular prescribed drugs are being advertised by pharmacies to offer the best price – you know we’ll have made progress. As for the price matching with other countries...
Here’s the view of the possible...
- Savings of 25% to 43% on top prescription drugs
Now, if you’re already on generics the savings would likely be something less than that figure but with the average adult spending over $1,200 per year on prescribed drugs – we're talking about savings that could conservatively equal $300 per person. That’s worthwhile for sure. I’ll continue to follow the duel paths at the state and federal level. If either comes to fruition it’d almost certainly be good news for you if anyone in your family is on regular prescriptions. And as for everyone else. Cheaper prescriptions equal cheaper health insurance policies and more stability for Medicare and Medicaid.