In CMS Confirms It: Drug Spending Slows, Hospital and Physician Spending Grows, I showed that growth in drug spending was significantly below the growth rate of overall national healthcare spending. Today, I delve into trends in third-party and patient payment for prescription drugs.
In 2016, all payers experienced a slowdown in spending. Employers' drug spending growth was nearly flat, while consumers (on average) paid less out of pocket. And for the third year in a row, spending by government payers exceeded spending by employers. The NHE are net of rebates, so gross-to-net bubblenomics play a part in these figures.
I suspect that the very slow growth in employers’ net costs occurred partly because employees are being forced to pay debilitating coinsurance—in some cases with no limit on out-of-pocket drug expenses.
The NHE data therefore suggest a troubling gap between haves and have-nots, based on benefit design and diagnosis. Some people can make do with inexpensive generic drugs, while others end up with sky-high out-of-pocket costs.
Read on for our wonktastic deep dive into the 2016 spending data.
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