HKS Affiliated Authors
Frank Plumpton Ramsey Professor of Political Economy
Excerpt
Excerpt
High-Priced Drugs in Medicare Part D: Diagnosis and Potential Prescription. Richard Zeckhauser, January 2018, Paper, "Drug pricing in the U.S. is a persistently vexing policy problem. While there is agreement among many policy analysts that supra competitive prices are necessary to promote innovation; significant disagreements arise over how much pricing discretion prescription drug manufacturers should be permitted, and what portion of the sum of producer plus consumer surplus in the prescription drug market should be claimed by manufacturers relative to consumers and other payers. This paper focuses on an extremely costly component of the Medicare Part D program the region of coverage that kicks in once a consumer has spent $4,950 on drugs in a calendar year (roughly $8,100 in total drug spending)." Link