The Pharmaceutical Industry versus Medicaid — Limits on State Initiatives to Control Prescription-Drug Costs

The need to manage escalating health care costs while maintaining reasonable access to care is becoming the salient challenge in U.S. health care policy. Insurance coverage is patchy and incomplete, and serious problems with access persist. The health care system has not succeeded in controlling expenditures. The cost pressures resulting from technological advances and an aging population are likely to exacerbate the problem of access.Nowhere is concern about cost and access more pressing than in the provision of prescription drugs through state Medicaid programs. Prescription drugs are the fastest-growing component of health care spending.1 Medicaid has been hit hard . . .