Kaiser Permanente is deeply concerned about the burden high drug prices impose on our members and the impact they have on our ability to carry out our mission. We believe it is possible — indeed essential — to ensure that the drug industry is rewarded appropriately for providing real innovation in a sustainable manner, and not just pricing their products at the highest possible price.

Patients, taxpayers, health care systems, and drug companies all deserve fair and reasonable solutions. It is time for a new framework for drug pricing that more effectively rewards innovation and discoveries, and also provides medicines at prices patients can afford.

We’ve advocated for policies that:

• Address anticompetitive practices including those that stop lower priced generic drugs from entering the market
• Curb arbitrary drug price increases
• Promote the use of evidence-based practices
• Support the creation of a fair system that assesses and pays for drugs according to their value

The market for prescription drugs is complex and rife with dysfunction. We encourage policymakers to look for the root problems to help us build a prescription drug market that will be sustainable for years to come.

¹ Cost to U.S. health system from 2019 drug price hikes with no evidence of increased clinical value, 2021.
² AARP, 2021
³ Rand Corporation, 2021.