It’s no secret that prescription drugs typically cost more in the United States than they do in other countries. But the price gap for newfangled weight-loss drugs is particularly stark.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation, some of the most popular diet drugs — which were intended for people with Type 2 diabetes but are now being used by non-diabetics — are orders of magnitude more expensive in the U.S. than they are abroad.
Wegovy, for example, runs about $1,300 in the U.S.
That’s quadruple the cost in Germany and the Netherlands.
Mounjaro will set Americans back about $1,000 — three times the cost paid by Japanese citizens.
Ozempic also costs about $1,000. In Britain and France the cost is below $100.
“The U.S. has by far the highest rates of adults with obesity,” KFF noted. “A third of adults have obesity in the U.S. compared to an average of 17.1% across peer nations.”
So why are Americans getting hosed? It’s simple.
All those other developed countries have either universal coverage or single-payer health insurance plans, which provide more bargaining power and greater efficiency.
The U.S. has no such healthcare resources. Instead, we have thousands of mostly private insurers cutting individual deals for themselves.
That’s a classic situation of divide-and-conquer, at least from the perspective of health insurers.
Put another way, Americans are held hostage by drug companies as our counterparts abroad enjoy the benefits of free-market economics.
Which is to say, drugmakers are making fat profits by overcharging us.
