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A plan for better access.(GUEST EDITORIAL)
With the passage of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, this country has a certain amount of momentum going toward getting all Americans better access to health benefits. In that spirit, I would like to make three concrete proposals to help more Americans gain access to much-needed health care:
1. Consolidate the free drug programs run by all the pharmaceutical companies. In 2003, our industry provided free drugs to more than 6 million patients. Efforts by pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide drugs to more people are hampered by current antitrust law. Each company must run its own separate program, with its own eligibility, application procedures, renewal requirements, and restrictions.
I propose that we establish a national Charitable Medicines Foundation to provide a single point of entry and eligibility clearinghouse for all pharmaceutical industry patient assistance programs. It would do so without raising antitrust concerns because it would be an independently chartered entity.
The foundation would work with participating manufacturers to create a common structure and would greatly simplify the process of applying and qualifying for free drugs, no matter what the source. It would also improve outreach to physicians and patients to ensure that they know how to access this resource.
2. Pool individually insured patients, as well as those in small-group plans, into large groups for underwriting purposes. In this country, we have an employer-based system of health coverage that works remarkably well for workers in large- and medium-sized companies.
Why do these large-group plans work so well? It's because of risk pooling. These workers are randomly assigned to large pools, so each risk pool ends up looking a lot like every other large pool, and each pool has predictable and manageable costs.
In contrast, small-group and individual insurance customers decide which plans to join based on how well the plan meets their health care needs. To make sure that the incoming premiums match the risk they are taking, ...
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Source: HighBeam Research, A plan for better access.(GUEST EDITORIAL)