More transparent drug pricing could help

When people get sick, they typically have no idea what their medicine will cost. And they have no idea how the price gets marked up along the way. That could change under a budget proposal from Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. Evers is calling for removing the secrecy of drug prices. His proposal would require those who manufacture the drugs, those who manage prescription drug benefits for health plans, health insurers and hospitals to disclose to the state what they pay for the prescription drugs. It is not yet clear how much of that information would be available to the public. Or whether it would help lower the cost of prescription drugs. Critics of the idea point out if you needed a drug to save your life, you probably would buy it no matter how expensive or how unjustified the price. But other say knowledge is power, and the more people know about the massive markup in drug costs, the more likely they are to be to demand change. After all, you can’t do anything about the cost until you know how they are set. But when we hear about the big pharma companies jacking up prices for things like an Epi-pen just so their bosses can get even richer, this proposal seems like a good start by providing some transparency and accountability.