Studies

Home > Resources  > Studies

February 7, 2024 Briefs, Studies

SACRAMENTO – Fixing the current broken system that incentivizes pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to enact policies that benefit themselves and insurers at the expense of patients would lead to lower patient drug costs, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. Click to download the brief “The current system incentivizes PBMs to implement policies that benefit insurers and themselves, while making drugs less affordable and available,” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden,...

September 26, 2023 Briefs, Coronavirus-Alternate2, Issues, Resources, Studies

SACRAMENTO – States that had more invasive COVID-19 restrictions saw small reductions in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, but saw large negative impacts on employment, economic growth, and children’s education outcomes, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. Click to download the brief “Looking at the data, states with stricter COVID-19 public health policies did see small health benefits from reduced infections and mortality rates – but at the...

August 28, 2023 Multimedia, Studies

Watch as the Professor buys a bike for Penny to show how the broken health care payment system hurts Medicare patients. They explore that by creating a support program based on income, we can help Medicare patients buy private insurance instead of being stuck with poor government care. READ THE STUDY   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvlwyvVGcNY...

August 4, 2023 Briefs, Multimedia, Studies

Watch as Penny is unhappy that she has to enter the geography bee instead of the science fair due to bureaucratic rules at school. The Professor explores how, much in the same way, eliminating unnecessary barriers can produce a more efficient and productive health care system. To learn more, read the Coverage Denied series at www.medecon.org   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmLoJWQ935M...

June 20, 2023 Briefs, Studies

Providing cash-based support to the vulnerable to purchase private health insurance would increase access to quality healthcare at roughly the same per enrollee costs as Medicaid programs - finds the latest paper in the Coverage Denied series released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. Click to download the brief “Tens of millions are stuck in a flawed government-run healthcare system that provides sub-par care to patients, imposes huge taxpayer costs, and harms the...

January 4, 2023 Briefs, Studies

DOWNLOAD THE BRIEF   Executive Summary Declining productivity growth in the delivery of healthcare is not innate to the sector. It simply reflects the current policy environment. Incentivizing a more productive and cost-effective healthcare provider sector is possible but requires comprehensive policy reforms that eliminate the obstacles blocking progress. These reforms include: Implementing the insurance reforms discussed in Part 5 that, from a provider perspective, will incentivize the creation of innovative payment models. New payment models create opportunities to better align the incentives...

November 16, 2022 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

SACRAMENTO – The broken 340B program, designed to provide affordable care for at-risk patients, creates massive profits for providers without necessarily improving patient health outcomes and should be reformed, finds a new issue brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download a copy of the brief “The 340B program is growing unsustainably and isn’t improving health outcomes for at-risk patients,” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, the Center’s director and the...

October 10, 2022 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

CLICK HERE TO READ THE BRIEF In addition to the reforms to the health insurance system, which will help address the problems of drug affordability, reforms tailored to the pharmaceutical sector are necessary. These reforms should eliminate drug supply chain inefficiencies and include: fostering a patient-controlled generics market, creating price transparency through reforms that ensure patients directly benefit from all discounts when purchasing their medicines,  fixing the drug formularies’ systemic biases against low-cost medicines, and encouraging contracting innovations that could create...

August 22, 2022 Briefs, Industry Trends, Price and Costs, Studies

SACRAMENTO – Biosimilars competition saves patients and the health care system over $11 billion annually and could generate even more savings if the broken drug pricing system were reformed, finds a new issue brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. “Patients living with cancer, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, and other illnesses are receiving revolutionary treatment from biologics,” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, the Center director and the study’s author. “As our research shows,...

July 25, 2022 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

CLICK HERE TO READ THE BRIEF Establishing an Efficient Health Insurance Market Cultivating an efficient health insurance market requires reforms that empower patients over payers, which can be achieved by: Making health expenditures and health insurance expenditures tax deductible;  Broadening the availability and usability of tax-free saving accounts to help patients cover the deductibles and out of pocket expenses that could arise should they require costly healthcare services; and Promoting price transparency and insurance competition to enable a more competitive pro-patient healthcare...

April 28, 2022 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

America’s broken third-party healthcare payment system prioritizes government and insurance companies as the largest payers, leaving patients with higher out-of-pocket costs, greater exposure to healthcare financial risk, and reduced access to care - finds the latest paper in the Coverage Denied series released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. Click here to read the brief “The healthcare marketplace should prioritize the needs of patients, but our broken third-party payment system caters to insurers...

March 1, 2022 Briefs, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs, Studies

READ THE REPORT The problem of drug affordability is caused by the perverse incentives created by the third-party payer system that have disempowered patients in favor of insurers and other supply-chain intermediaries. The insurance flaws have created pricing systems that inequitably transfer a disproportionate share of drug costs on to patients. This arrangement inappropriately imposes a drug affordability problem on patients who require expensive medicines. The insurance flaws also incent benefit design policies that create additional affordability burdens and unnecessarily increase...

October 21, 2021 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

Addressing the ongoing problems with the U.S. health insurance system, the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today announced the release of the first paper in the Coverage Denied series, which will analyze and propose reforms to fix the problems in the current system that threaten patient health outcomes and often lead to huge financial risks for patients facing unexpected or chronic health care challenges. Click to download the first paper in PRI’s Coverage Denied...

October 19, 2021 Briefs, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs, Studies

Today, the Pacific Research Institute published an issue brief revealing overwhelming public disapproval for Medicare reforms that Congress is considering as part of its $3.5 trillion spending bill. Click here to read the full issue brief, "Drug Pricing Proposals Threaten America's Most Vulnerable Patients." "It's a relief that Americans oppose Congress's drug pricing proposals once voters learn the true consequences of these misguided reforms," said Sally C. Pipes, the brief's co-author and PRI president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health...

August 3, 2021 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies, Value

Establishing a two-part drug pricing system quantifying separate values for a drug’s innovation and production would create an efficient market and a more accurate reflection of how patients value a drug compared to those produced by centralized organizations, argues a new report released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute. Click to download “Establishing a Two-Part Drug Pricing System to Promote Value-Based Pricing and Innovation” “Some policymakers assume that only a centralized agency can determine...

March 17, 2021 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

A commonly-used analysis to determine a medicine’s value is based on flawed methodologies that would diminish innovation and access, finds a new report released today by the nonpartisan Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute. “Cost effectiveness reports may provide precise estimates, but there is no reason to believe that these estimates accurately reflect the value of medicines,” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, the brief’s author.  “The documented biases in their value assessments should raise serious concerns that...

January 8, 2020 Briefs, Price and Costs, Resources, Studies

As Washington pushes for price caps and government controls to address prescription drug prices, a new issue brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute argues that reforming the complex drug supply chain and ending the current drug pricing system that overcharges patients – along with system-wide reforms – are what’s needed to lower America’s health care costs. “Politicians are promoting drug price caps and increased regulation in a futile attempt to increase...

June 26, 2019 Price and Costs, Studies, Value

A new poll from the California-based nonpartisan think tank, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), shows that Americans overwhelmingly support innovative gene therapies, which change the focus of medicine from treating illnesses to curing illnesses. Click here to read the top-line results of PRI’s poll on gene therapies “Gene therapies have the potential to cure a wide array of difficult-to-treat diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease, autism, cystic fibrosis, HIV, and cancer, among others” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, director of PRI’s Center for Medical Economics...