can liberating medicine increase the price? Claritin.

[gusl]

This reminds me of the "identify the fallacies" part of the GRE Writing section

from here

When Claritin recently became available without a prescription, the health insurance industry and the companies they cover were licking their chops over the nearly $1 billion in prescription cost savings they'll enjoy each year. As for allergy sufferers, instead of a $15 to $20 co-payment to be diagnosed and prescribed the medication, they now have to pay around $1 per pill for over-the-counter Claritin, which adds up to hundreds of dollars per allergy season. While this plan is one heck of a deal for the HMOs, it perhaps can best be described as a whopping tax increase on average Americans with allergies.

The question, of course, is why over-the-counter Claritin would be more expensive. Perhaps this is a good case for archeological economists.

For one thing, they sell more, so they become cheaper to mass-produce... OTOH, being the only over-the-counter drug of its kind, it enjoys a sort of monopoly.

Comments

[altamira16.livejournal.com]

No, basically, the price didn't really change when it became over-the-counter (OTC). Before it went OTC, there was a huge price drop because the patent expired. Due to the fact that it is now OTC, patients, not the insurance companies, cover the cost of the medication. Typically insurance companies cover half of a prescription to all but a given co-pay between $5-$20 dollars. The generic brand claritin is MUCH cheaper. I think I have a bottle of 100 for less than $20 which is about what it would cost me to get 20 to 30 name brand Claritin pills over the counter.