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. Pharmaceutical companies continue to raise prices to unaffordable levels, forcing many patients and families, including those with the most comprehensive coverage, to choose between paying their rent or mortgage or paying for their medications.   
 

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 U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, Minority Office, 2018.
³ Rand Corporation, 2021.