{"id":7977,"date":"2021-07-03T03:44:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T13:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=7977"},"modified":"2021-07-03T03:44:25","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T13:44:25","slug":"retail-drug-prices-rises-faster-than-inflation-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/07\/03\/retail-drug-prices-rises-faster-than-inflation-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail Drug Prices Rises Faster than Inflation During the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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With COVID-19 pandemic greatly affecting the economy, prices for certain goods went up that even top brand name drugs had price increases that exceeded the general inflation rate.

According to AARP\u2019s Rx Price Watch Report<\/a> covering the retail prescription drugs industry in 2020, retail prices for 260 brand name prescription drugs increased more than twice as fast as general inflation, \u201crising 2.9% compared to an inflation rate of 1.3%.\u201d

\u201cIt\u2019s inexcusable that even during a pandemic and financial crisis, brand name drug companies continued to increase their prices so much faster than the prices of other goods and services,\u201d said Debra Whitman, Executive Vice President and Chief Public Policy Officer at AARP.

In 2015, the average annual cost of one brand name medication that is used regularly is $5,500. But last year, the average annual cost went over to $6,600.

If an older American is taking four to five prescription drugs per month, the annual cost of their medication in 2020 would have been more than $31,000 which is way over the average annual income of $26,000 for Medicare beneficiaries.

Moreover, according to AARP: \u201cMedicare Part D spending nearly $40 billion more on top brand name drugs between 2015 and 2019 due to price increases that increases the general inflation rate.\u201d

Moreover, Medicare Part D spent nearly $40 billion more on top brand name prescription drugs because companies had \u201cannual price increases that exceeded the corresponding rate of inflation from 2015 to 2019.\u201d

\u201cIt\u2019s unfair that drug prices keep rising, even for medications that have been on the market for decades. Americans can\u2019t afford to keep paying the highest drug prices in the world,\u201d said Leigh Purvis, Director Health Care Costs and Access, AARP Public Policy Institute, and co-author of the reports.

In response to the growing need to regulate prescription drugs, AARP has been calling on national and state lawmakers to take action to address the issue including:

Price Negotiation: <\/strong>Allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs for its beneficiaries and allow other insurers to have access to the Medicare-negotiated prices.

Inflation Based Rebates: <\/strong>Require drug manufacturers to pay a penalty when their prices for prescription drugs covered by Medicare Parts B and D increase faster than inflation.

Out-of-Pocket Cap:<\/strong> Create a hard out-of-pocket spending cap for Medicare Part D enrollees.

\u201cNo one should be forced to choose between paying their bills and paying for the medicine they need to stay healthy. Our leaders need to take action now to lower drug prices,\u201d Whitman said.

AARP is the country\u2019s leading and largest nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people age 50 and older. To view the full Rx Watch Report, visit <\/em>aarp.org\/rxpricewatch<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With COVID-19 pandemic greatly affecting the economy, prices for certain goods went up that even…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=1200%2C689",1200,689,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=300%2C172",300,172,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=640%2C368",640,368,true],"large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=640%2C368",640,368,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=1200%2C689",1200,689,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=1200%2C689",1200,689,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=1200%2C689",1200,689,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=870%2C570",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=600%2C689",600,689,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=1115%2C689",1115,689,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=679%2C500",679,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=1024%2C588",1024,588,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=540%2C285",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?resize=375%2C250",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Mainland<\/a>","tag_info":"Mainland","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Photo-RX-Pricewatch-Report.jpg?fit=1200%2C689","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7977"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7978,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7977\/revisions\/7978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}