The Biden administration said Thursday that drug price negotiations will knock hundreds of dollars — in some cases thousands — off the list prices of 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs. The discounts, agreed to after months of negotiations with drug manufacturers, range between 38% and 79% on the medication's list price, which is the cost of medication before discounts or rebates are applied — not the price people actually pay for prescriptions. Medicare spent $50 billion covering the drugs last year and taxpayers are expected to save $6 billion on the new prices, which do not go into effect until 2026.
The real way to fix this is to have the government make competing generic medications. They should be used to supply the armed forces and offered to anyone as a competing med to drive prices down. It would also be useful for filling meds no one wants to manufacture anymore because they aren’t “profitable”.
The real way to fix this is to do like every civilised country does and have the government be the monopoly that pharmaceutical companies need to deal with. When you’ve got one buyer you take the price they offer and shut the fuck up.