http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/ ... -explainedSingapore is unusually secretive about how its pharmaceutical decisions are made — Britain’s much-criticized National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which makes decisions about which drugs will qualify for public funds, is far more transparent. A previous health minister of Singapore says the opacity is to prevent “intense lobbying by pharmaceutical companies” — what they want are pharmaceutical companies selling all drugs at low prices in the hopes of getting onto the standard list. That’s how Singapore uses their subsidies to lower prices not just for the subsidized but for everyone.
Compare all this with America, where Medicare is prohibited, by law, from negotiating down the price of pharmaceuticals, even for its own enrollees!
The Singaporean system is possible because the government keeps costs so low.
.And not forgetting the middlemen i.e. the health insurance companies. Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross .......the agents, brokers, staffing to process the claims, those that navigate thru the myriad cycles of co-pay, co-insurance, deductibles and patients portions. Ooops, I am getting a headache and need my pill nowit’s very challenging to design high-performing, clean systems that we could smoothly transition to from here, given how many hospitals and doctors and employers and even patients are dependent on the money flowing through system we have, and would viciously fight efforts to upend it.
. Just remember this, it all comes out of our pockets. And that money does not go towards paying for direct healthcare expenses.
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