Healthcare Research 2

prescription drug pricing

The US pays the most for 13 of 14 drugs, compared to 7 other nations. In 2015, the US paid 3 times more for the 20 top selling drugs than the United Kingdom.

Under current Medicare law, the US government is actually prohibited from negotiating prescription drug prices directly with manufacturers. There is broad public support to authorize negotiated drug pricing among Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Medicare accounts for 29% of retail pharmaceutical spending. Read article here

Spending on Health insurance administration

This chart illustrates that the United States pays dramatically more in health insurance administration than the other 12 countries listed. In fact, it spends more than twice as much as Switzerland, the country with the next highest administrative costs. 

healthcare expenditures in CA, 2016

This pie chart illustrates the fact that most healthcare spending in California - 71% - is from government funds (aka tax payer dollars).  In addition to the 2 biggest programs, Medicare and Medi-Cal, it includes other sources such as tax subsidies for employer-sponsored insurance and government employer premium contributions. In 2016, that public spending totaled $260 billion. Private expenditures totaled $106.6 billion. To view the full UCLA Health Policy Brief, click here