International pricing index ‘accomplishes nothing it sets out to do’

By SUSAN PESCHIN and DUANE SCHULTHESS, OCTOBER 21, 2019

Even with all of the political chatter in Washington, D.C., talk about controlling prescription drug prices is still rising above the din. Of all the proposals being batted around, one that bases prices on an international average of prices in mostly European countries has bipartisan support. This strategy, known as the international pricing index, is particularly worrisome.

First proposed by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in the fall of 2018 for Medicare Part B drugs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing plan expands it to allow the federal government to negotiate the cost of 250 prescription medicines that aren’t facing market competition. It also extends the negotiated price to insurers and the commercial market at large.