Free medication samples, which at first glance look like a win-win-win situation for manufacturers, doctors, and patients, can have hidden costs. Doctors might pick a sub-optimal drug simply because they have a sample. Plus, only makers of expensive brand-name drugs are doling out samples, and leaving pharmacists out of the equation might raise the risk of errors. Recognizing that, health systems around the country are beginning to curtail the practice, a major marketing tool. In January, a study in the journal PLoS Medicine estimated that in 2004, drugmakers handed out free samples to U.S. doctors with a retail value of nearly $16 billion, equal to more than a quarter of their marketing budgets that year.
Thousands of seniors nationwide are not yet eligible for Medicare but fall in the costliest age range for medical care. Some are facing the reality that fewer employers are keeping early retirees on their insurance rolls until they qualify for Medicare at age 65. Others have lost employer-based coverage after their spouse died or went on Medicare, and many others aren't able to get individual health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. Or they have decided to go without insurance because of how much it costs to get coverage.
About one in 10 doctors who vaccinate privately insured children might drop that service largely because they are losing money when they do it, according to a survey. A second survey revealed startling differences between what doctors pay for vaccines and what private health insurers reimburse: For example, one in 10 doctors lost money on one recommended infant vaccine, but others made almost $40 per dose on the same shot.
For years, foreign healthcare providers have moved cautiously in China, mainly offering Western-style medicine to expatriates and rich Chinese. But now some Taiwan companies are taking a radically different tack and selling low-cost quality healthcare to China's masses. The move is risky because China's healthcare market is fragmented and largely insulated from criticism because the state runs most of it. But the companies have an interesting edge because they are Taiwan manufacturing giants that have been running low-cost factories in China for years.
Too young to qualify for Medicare and rarely covered by employers, healthy early retirees can face healthcare premiums that are triple or more what they paid while working. Others, who suffer from middle-age ailments like arthritis or back pain, wind up paying far more, if they aren't simply rejected. Researchers at the Commonwealth Fund found that in 2007 about 35% of people between the ages of 50 and 64 were uninsured or underinsured, up from 26% five years ago.
The European Union has accused drug companies of adding billions of dollars to healthcare costs by delaying or blocking the sale of less expensive generic medicines. Patients and healthcare systems in Europe would have saved at least 3 billion euros, or $3.8 billion, from 2000 to 2007—or shaved 5% off the medical bills—if companies had let generics into the market sooner, said Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner.