[yold__]

> It’s a huge rip off. Medicare should be paying a discount to the median price actually paid on the open market. But apparent nobody has an incentive to fix this.

This is utterly wrong. First of all, Medicare Part D covers pharmacy benefits. Part D is supplemental insurance purchased by seniors from a private insurance company. If you are too poor, I think you go on Medicaid. Also, Medicare Part D plans DO pay less than commercial plans.

This study is probably complete B.S. because no one knows how much is paid in drug rebates. Manufacturers pay the insurance companies (including Medicare) huge amounts of money (back) for prescription drug utilization coming from their members. In short, it's a legal kick-back. And I'm not kidding, it's a huge amount of money (like 20% - 30% of the reimbursement price)

U.S. drug pricing is broken for many reasons, and sorry to call you out, but nothing that you said is true. Everybody gets ripped off by big pharma, not just the government.