Congressional Budget Office Releases Prescription Drugs Spending, Use, and Pricing Report
January 25, 2022
Results from a recently released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prescription drugs report found drops in net prices for prescriptions in Medicare Part D and Medicare from 2009 to 2019. The drops, the report finds, result from increased reliance on lower-cost generics. Brand name drugs, in contrast, were raised during the same period.
According to the report, “Aside from a pronounced increase between 2013 and 2015, spending on prescription drugs has grown more slowly since the mid-2000s. That slower growth in spending—and the accompanying reduction in per capita spending—is associated with the growing availability of generic drugs, which tend to have much lower prices than their brand-name counterparts. The brief, sharp increase in spending between 2013 and 2015 coincided with the introduction of a particularly expensive class of drugs that treat hepatitis C.”
Click here to find the full report.
(Source: Congressional Budget Office, January, 2022)