January 2, 2025 — Will savings from reduced food and beverage spending be sufficient to cover the cost of obesity medicines? Will these medicines transform the patterns of a whole range of consumer purchases? Speculation about GLP-1s, consumers, and economics is rampant right now. It’s popping up in both serious economic reporting and academic journals. The speculation is only […]
February 18, 2024 — Who knew that financial toxicity was a thing? Perhaps like us, you have merely thought of it as the financial burden of healthcare – without assigning it the status of a medical complication that dysfunctional healthcare causes. But recent publications are making it ever more clear that people living with chronic diseases are having to […]
November 6, 2023 — It is frustrating. The list price of Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is more than a thousand dollars per month. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) negotiate costs for this drug that brings the average cost down to an estimated $215, but many folks get stuck paying the full list price, forgoing treatment, or paying a copay that might exceed […]
June 2, 2023 — Reporters are writing a lot about the unaffordable cost of new obesity medicines like semaglutide. They’re doing a lot of really solid reporting. But unfortunately, they are also pushing out a false narrative and just about everyone else is coming along for the ride. Time and time again we see journalists reporting inflated costs for […]
May 12, 2023 — Don’t look at me! That’s basically how it went at a U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday. Top executives from PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) and the three pharma companies selling insulin testified to suggest they’re doing everything they possibly can to keep drug prices low. PBMs point the finger at pharma. Pharma executives return the favor. Lilly […]
May 8, 2023 — Semaglutide for the treatment of obesity continues to be in short supply. Late last week, Novo Nordisk announced that, because the company is still having difficulty keeping up with demand, they would limit production of the lower doses used to start patients on Wegovy. Thus, compounding pharmacies are selling cheap copies of semaglutide injection and […]
March 14, 2023 — Recently, we have written much about the high cost of obesity medicines, limited coverage under health plans, and the need for change. This is a very real problem and glaciers melt faster (sad to say) than policy makers make progress on this. But absurd arguments about the cost of obesity care do not help. In […]
February 7, 2023 — For most Americans today, the reality of health insurance is harsh. More than half of us have enrolled in high-deductible health plans that can bankrupt us if we get sick. Insurers play games to deny people coverage for expensive drugs they can’t possibly afford out of pocket. So is the harshness of health insurance toward […]
December 31, 2021 — Looking toward a new year gives us time to think about what we want and what we don’t for our lives in the year ahead. Make no mistake, the list that follows does not come from an oracle with any assurance these things must be true. But our expectations can indeed shape our futures because […]
July 8, 2021 — This is seriously messed up. Let’s consider the case of two innovative new drugs and how health insurance will cover them. Each of them treats a chronic disease that can devastate a person’s health and quality of life. But these are different diseases and very different drugs. One offers a breakthrough in effectiveness. In fact, […]
