Sal Paradise wrote:
This was exposed on QT last night as Labour scaremongry - everybody knows the NHS is not going to be privatised - every major US pharmaceutical company already has a presence in the UK so what is going to change. The vast majority of drugs we use in this country are out of patent and we use generic options. Which bits of the NHS will get privatised?
The idiot shadow health secretary suggested it would cost the NHS an additional £500m a week - that was until it was pointed out that the reduction in the spina bifida drug negotiated between a US co and the government.
It isn’t much to do with pharmaceutical companies, directly at least. Drugs account for about 12% of NHS spending. The NHS already spends close to 10% of its budget on care purchased from the private sector, and how much that grows and shapes healthcare policy and delivery is probably the bigger issue.
But, on drugs Americans pay much higher prices than other countries. This is partly because they are rich and can afford it, and drug companies implement differential pricing to make their products accessible in poorer countries as well. However, they also pay higher prices than even wealthy European countries who have strong government-backed cost-containment measures in place. The Americans might view such approaches as being a bit socialist for their tastes, but their own system is fragmented and has some poorly aligned incentives, and from a selfish UK perspective, we
really want avoid adopting something similar. It is maybe unfair that the US carries so much of the burden of funding the Global pharmaceutical industry. But i’d prefer they changed it through reforming their own crappy, inefficient system, rather than foisting it on us.