Since 2000, drugs for common mental conditions have lost patent protection. After the introduction of generics, procurement increases as more vendors enter the market, resulting in lower prices – about 80-85% lower! Cheaper prescriptions and more treatment is a stated goal of policies to improve accessibility.
…Drug prices really went down during this time. For the SSRI sertraline, monthly consumer costs fell from $35 in the mid-2000s to $6 in the mid-2010s. Medicaid spending on antidepressants increased in 2004 ($2 billion) and decreased in 2018 ($750 million). The authors of that paper note that “generic drug prices have been steadily declining over time” while use has been rising. From 2013 to 2018, both out-of-pocket costs and total costs per prescription have decreased for antidepressants and antipsychotics. For antipsychotics, generic drug claims increased by 35% from 2016 to 2021.
According to the DEA, total emissions of stimulants jumped 58 percent from 2012 to 2022; note how this follows the general introduction of the long-acting Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (amphetamine) products. Recently, prices have risen amid shortages.
Also:
By the mid-2010s, people with mental health conditions were better able to afford mental health care. Young adults, now on their parents’ insurance, are seeing a drop in behavioral health costs in particular. For people aged 18-25, “psychiatric treatment increased by 5.3 percent compared to a comparable group of the same people aged 26-35.” Even for employer plans, in-network prices and cost-sharing decreased from 2007 to 2017…
Here is the full story of AffectiveMedicine. It has many other interesting points.
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