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Drug prices in the U.S. are ridiculously high. Anyone who has ever filled a prescription or has a family member with a medical condition requiring drug treatment knows this all too well. And it’s one of those only-in-the U.S.-type problems, as Americans pay significantly more on prescription drugs than people in every other developed economy. A vial of insulin, for example, costs nearly $100 in the U.S, compared with less than $7 in Australia. This problem is especially bad for seniors.
The new climate, health care and tax law that President Joe Biden just signed is supposed to change this. One of the provisions receiving the most attention will let Medicare, for the first time, negotiate drug prices, thus lowering how much the government spends on prescriptions.
But will it save much money for seniors, or lower drug prices for anyone under 65? Simon Haeder, a health policy expert at Texas A&M University, is skeptical. He explains why the impact of letting Medicare negotiate drug prices will be modest and highlights the provisions in the new law that may actually make a big dent in struggling seniors’ drug bills.
Also today:
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Bryan Keogh
Deputy Managing Editor
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Drug prices have been soaring in recent years.
stevecoleimages/E+ via Getty Inages
Simon F. Haeder, Texas A&M University
A new law will let Medicare bargain for the first time. But a health policy scholar explains why it’s unlikely to make much of a difference in how much seniors – or anyone else – pays for their meds.
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Arts + Culture
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Rebecca Scofield, University of Idaho; Elyssa Ford, Northwest Missouri State University
Young queer people growing up in rural areas don’t necessarily need to flee their communities to find safety and acceptance.
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Health + Medicine
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Lisa Bero, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
A new screening tool to help study reviewers identify what’s fake or shoddy in research may be on the horizon. And everyday people can apply some of the same critical analysis tools.
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Amy Macneill, Colorado State University
The monkeypox virus can easily spread between humans and animals. A veterinary virologist explains how the virus could go from people to wild animals in the US – and why that could be a problem.
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Politics + Society
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Ronald Suny, University of Michigan
Democratic nation-states were supposed to be the legitimate successors of empires. It hasn’t quite worked out that way in the past century, and Russia’s war on Ukraine is a reflection of that.
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Victor Menaldo, University of Washington; James D. Long, University of Washington; Morgan Wack, University of Washington
Both sweeping immunity and overzealous prosecutions of former leaders can undermine democracy. But such prosecutions pose different risks for older democracies like the US than in younger ones.
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Science + Technology
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Uisdean Nicholson, Heriot-Watt University; Sean Gulick, University of Texas at Austin; Veronica Bray, University of Arizona
The dinosaurs were possibly annihilated by two asteroids.
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Environment + Energy
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J. Carlee Purdum, Texas A&M University
A survey conducted in Texas state prisons finds that many lack basic resources like cold water, ice and air conditioning to help incarcerated people and staff keep cool during heat waves.
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