No. of Recommendations: 1
Pricing can't, and won't, meaningfully affect medical spending either.
It depends what is being given a price.
Big difference between drugs and personal professional services.
Drugs CAN be priced, and should have reasonable price controls. That is 30+% of US healthcare costs. The US pays far more for the same drugs, and it buys many of the highest volumes--which means the price/dose in the US should be near the lowest cost. Thus, the US govt is not using the tool it uses in many other purchasing decisions--requiring competitive bidding. That would not apply to newly-approved drugs for a set number of years, but that is normal with a new product under a recent patent. The federal govt already requires drug companies to sell to the VA at a "best price" (set by the company, I believe).
