Column: SB734 is a prescription for lower-quality care

Price Controls Are Bad Medicine for Vulnerable Americans by Naomi Lopez and Rafael Fonseca, MD Senate Bill 734 would establish price controls on cutting-edge drug treatments, making it illegal for any health plan to purchase drug treatments where the price exceeded a government-determined reference price. This would apply to state government programs, as well as all private employer-sponsored health plans that cover Oklahomans. These price controls would be based on drug prices found in Canada, a country that explicitly rations care under its socialized medicine system to keep costs down. Put simply, that system is an innovation-killer — and should Senate Bill 734 become law, Oklahomans will be getting a prescription for lower-quality care. While it may sound appealing to reduce the cost of prescription drug treatments, this proposal would be doing so at the expense of access to the newest, most effective drug treatments. In Canada, a new treatment cannot be sold for more than other drugs in the same therapeutic class, even if it results in better health care outcomes or avoids other costly interventions like surgery and hospitalization. That means that access to the newest treatments are often delayed for Canadian patients by months or, in some cases, years. Read more » by Jamison Faught - March 08, 2021 at 11:33AM

Column: SB734 is a prescription for lower-quality care Click the title to read the entire article at Muskogee Politico