October 26, 2007

In a great Seattle Post op-ed, CMPI Vice President Robert Goldberg explains how health care competititon works for prescription drugs:

The Labor Department recently reported that the inflation rate for prescription drugs dropped to 1 percent over the past year. That's a 30-year low, well below inflation, and a salve for consumers used to price increases.

It's also no accident. Two big things changed in prescription drugs last year. One is a surge in the use of generics. The other is a fierce retail war among Wal-Mart, Publix and other retail-pharmacy giants, each seeking a bigger share of the market.

Goldberg concludes that "when competitive markets are allowed to function [in health care] -- prices respond favorably for consumers, just as they do in other sectors of the economy." The trick is getting to that point, which is what our national health care debate is all about.

Posted by Paul Howard at October 26, 2007 02:32 PM

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