Creating a sustainable, patient-centric healthcare system requires policies and regulatory structures that enhance innovation, access and affordability. While commercial insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) continue to benefit from lower net drug prices, patients face high out-of-pocket costs due to distorted incentives and inadequate insurance designs.
The recently released Johnson & Johnson 2024 Patient Access & Affordability Issue Brief shows that the company provided $47.8 billion in rebates, discounts and fees to the healthcare system. Despite the substantial drug discounts by innovators like J&J, about one in three Americans find their out-of-pocket costs for healthcare services have increased over the past year. Indeed, patients continue to encounter high out-of-pocket costs, inadequate insurance benefit design and administrative hurdles that delay or deny care. Reforms should focus on reducing out-of-pocket expenses, holding PBMs accountable and reforming the 340B Program to ensure discounts are shared with patients.
Our Transparency Report points toward reforms that center on patients, not paperwork.
To help patients benefit from breakthrough medicines, policymakers should expand access, eliminate barriers to care and support innovation. Here’s how:
- Enact legislation to protect patients from patient assistance diversion programs that limit access.
- Stop alternative funding programs (AFPs) that harm patients.
- Reform PBMs to prevent patient access hurdles to lower patient costs.
- Enact legislation to streamline prior authorization requirements.
- Reform the 340B Program to support its original intent by increasing transparency and accountability.
- Bolster the U.S. leadership role in discovering critical medicines by supporting the robust innovation ecosystem.
- Lower costs and reduce regulatory hurdles that hinder the development and manufacturing of life-saving medicines.
Patients deserve a healthcare system that drives innovation, expands access and delivers affordability. By implementing targeted reforms, policymakers can help remove the gap between declining net drug prices and rising patient costs. It’s time to ensure that every dollar intended to support patient care does just that.
Johnson & Johnson drives scientific breakthroughs that improve health for everyone and offers transparency when it comes to patient access and drug pricing. The Transparency Report provides key data, analysis and insights to help advance solutions to create a more sustainable, equitable and innovative healthcare system.
Read the full 2024 U.S. Pricing Transparency Report on Patient Access & Affordability here.
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