Drug Costs Continue to Rise

By Kevin E. Noonan — Increased drug costs have been a political and economic target for more than the past generation, being one of the motivations for the Hatch-Waxman Act in 1984. Drug costs were a big part of Ross Perot's campaign in 1992, Hillary Clinton's ill-fated healthcare plans when she was First Lady, and President George W. Bush's changes to Medicare/Medicaid during his second term. Negotiating drug prices was also a lynchpin of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, and the high cost of biologic drugs created the political climate for the Biologic Price Competition and Innovation Act in 2011….Original Article