“Despite the heightened focus on prescription drug prices by policymakers, CHIA’s 2019 Annual Report shows the spending growth rate on prescription drugs, net of rebates, is declining year-over-year for the third year in a row. As CHIA’s report demonstrates, Massachusetts payers’ collective spend on prescription drugs was reduced by $1.8 billion through rebates and discounts they received from drug manufacturers. Using this measurement of the real costs to the state’s healthcare system, prescription drugs are the third smallest category of healthcare spend and the fourth smallest contributor to the change in total healthcare expenditures. As our state’s policymakers consider healthcare reform legislation this session, we urge them to look carefully at the real drivers of healthcare costs in Massachusetts and examine why health insurance out-of-pocket costs and premiums are growing at twice the rate of inflation and substantially faster than the state’s at-benchmark 3.1% total healthcare expenditure growth rate.”
– Robert K. Coughlin, President and CEO of MassBio