The Price of Promise – Drug Pricing and Value Based Care
The questions surrounding drug pricing focus on soaring U.S. medication costs, debates over value-based pricing, and limited access to generics, all of which affect who can afford life-saving treatments.
THE DILEMMA
The controversy over drug pricing centers on how to balance rewarding innovation with keeping life-saving medications affordable, affecting access, equity, and the sustainability of healthcare.
The Price of Care.
Prescription drug costs in the United States remain a persistent challenge, often putting life-saving treatments out of reach for patients who need them most. Policymakers are increasingly exploring value-based pricing, an approach that links the cost of a medication to the measurable health outcomes it provides. This model rewards treatments that deliver meaningful benefits while discouraging spending on interventions that have little impact on patient health. At the same time, expanding competition through generics and biosimilars has the potential to lower costs and improve access across diverse populations. These policy decisions are more than economic—they are ethical, reflecting how society values equity, fairness, and access to medical innovation. How drug prices are set influences patient adherence, overall population health, and the sustainability of the healthcare system. Considering these factors helps illuminate how public health priorities are defined and who truly benefits from the promise of modern medicine.
Works Cited
Yeung K. “Value‑Based Pricing of US Prescription Drugs.” PMC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9856524/ PMC
Ollendorf D. A., Neumann P. J. “A Value‑Based Approach to America’s Costly Prescription Drug Problem.” Commonwealth Fund. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/value-based-approach-americas-costly-prescription-drug-problem Commonwealth Fund
Patel K., Schulman K. “Policy Options to Reduce Prescription Drug Costs.” Stanford Medicine News. https://med.stanford.edu/medicine/news/current-news/standard-news/policy-options-white-paper.html
