The Affordable Care Act contained a range of provisions that altered prescription drug access and affordability for patients, payers, and providers. Yet the act stopped short of instituting systemic changes in the pricing of drugs, in part to address concerns that more fundamental changes might disrupt the development of new medicines. Looking back a decade after the Affordable Care Act became law, we found that new drug approvals have accelerated and the therapeutic advances embodied in some novel medicines are substantial-as are the prices that companies are charging for them. The lack of affordability of prescription drugs has become an increasing challenge for American patients and payers, particularly those with limited budgets. In this article we consider how things have changed in the past decade and how missed opportunities in the Affordable Care Act's passage figure prominently in the current drug pricing debate.
Keywords: Access to care; Affordable Care Act; Costs and spending; Drug pricing; Health policy; Medicare Part D; Pharmaceutical companies; Pharmaceuticals; Prescription drug costs; prescription drugs.
Kesselheim AS, Avorn J, Sarpatwari A. Kesselheim AS, et al. JAMA. 2016 Aug 23-30;316(8):858-71. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.11237. JAMA. 2016. PMID: 27552619 Review.
Ung BL, Mullins CD. Ung BL, et al. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2015 May-Jun;11(3):459-67. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2014.08.004. Epub 2014 Aug 12. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2015. PMID: 25217142
Look KA, Arora P. Look KA, et al. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2016 Sep-Oct;12(5):682-98. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2015.10.005. Epub 2015 Oct 28. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2016. PMID: 26632980
Buntin MB, Graves JA. Buntin MB, et al. Health Aff (Millwood). 2020 Mar;39(3):403-412. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01478. Health Aff (Millwood). 2020. PMID: 32119621 Review.
Moon M. Moon M. J Aging Soc Policy. 2012;24(2):233-47. doi: 10.1080/08959420.2012.659111. J Aging Soc Policy. 2012. PMID: 22497361
Luchristt D, Bretschneider CE, Kenton K, Simon M, Brown O. Luchristt D, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 May 1;6(5):e2315074. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.15074. JAMA Netw Open. 2023. PMID: 37223899 Free PMC article.
Lima HA, Moazzam Z, Endo Y, Alaimo L, Diaz A, Woldesenbet S, Shaikh C, Munir MM, Azap LE, Yang J, Resende V, Pawlik TM. Lima HA, et al. J Gastrointest Surg. 2023 Feb;27(2):262-272. doi: 10.1007/s11605-022-05496-6. Epub 2022 Nov 18. J Gastrointest Surg. 2023. PMID: 36400904
Auty SG, Griffith KN, Shafer PR, Gee RE, Conti RM. Auty SG, et al. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2022 Dec 1;47(6):691-708. doi: 10.1215/03616878-10041121. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2022. PMID: 35867531 Free PMC article.