A report released Sept. 23 by the House Ways & Means Committee shows that Americans pay on average nearly four times more for prescription drugs than 11 economically similar countries.
The report, titled "A Painful Pill to Swallow: U.S. vs. International Prescription Drug Prices," compared drug prices in the U.S. to drug prices in the United Kingdom, Japan, Ontario, Australia, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
It concluded that Americans pay significantly more than the other countries even when accounting for rebates, and that the U.S. could save $49 billion annually on Medicare Part D alone by pricing drugs similarly to the other countries studied. Most countries had average prices around 24 to 30 percent lower than those in the U.S.
The report illustrates why drugmakers are opposed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan, which would allow the U.S. to negotiate drug prices by comparing them to other countries' prices.
Read the full report here.