This paper examines the practice of "Reference Pricing". Basically it’s a method used to control spending on prescription drugs by public and private insurance systems. Under this approach, drugs which are judged to be interchangeable are classified in therapeutic classes, and a reimbursement ceiling is set up for the whole class.
It’s a common cry – the increasing cost of prescription drugs is bankrupting the health care system. But is that actually the case? Advancements in technology have dramatically changed the face of medical care, and pharmaceuticals have been in the forefront. This paper published with the Canadian Health Care Consensus Group examines how today's drugs actually save the system money.
The US flu shot crisis didn’t occur because of too little government involvement in the industry, but rather too much. "This Won’t Hurt a Bit: Why the vaccine crisis shows we shouldn’t believe what health “planners” tell us about how to reform drug policy" explains that, contrary to some recently published media reports, over-zealous governments have made the production of flu vaccines in that country very unattractive and helped to make less therapeutically valuable drugs the focus of industry attention.