Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16015

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Rockoff JD.
Drug Makers Criticized for Co-Pay Subsidies
The Wall Street Journal 2009 Jul 20
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124804603437163631.html

Full text:

Even as U.S. lawmakers seek new ways to rein in health-care spending, drug companies are quietly circumventing a proven tool for controlling prescription-drug costs: insurance co-payments.

Drug makers are increasingly subsidizing these “co-pays” — the share of prescription costs that insured patients must pay out of their own pocket. Insurers require co-pays to give patients an incentive to be price-sensitive and pick generic drugs over pricier name brands.

In the past year, drug manufacturers have broadly expanded their subsidy programs, according to a Wall Street Journal examination of their practices, potentially undermining the cost-cutting incentive. Drugs with co-pays subsidized by …