Medicine prices grew just 1.6 percent in 2018, the slowest rate since 2013, data from Altarum Institute. Between December 2017 and December 2018, medicine price growth declined by 0.6 percent, the lowest rate in 45 years. Medicine prices grew below the rate of overall health care , which was 1.8 percent in 2018.
New government data show medicine price growth continues to decline
Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a record 59 new treatments and cures. During this incredible period of innovation, medicine price growth continued to slow dramatically.
Medicine prices grew just 1.6 percent in 2018, the slowest rate since 2013, according to the latest data from Altarum Institute. Between December 2017 and December 2018, medicine price growth declined by 0.6 percent, the lowest year-over-year rate in 45 years. The data also show that medicine prices grew below the rate of overall health care price growth, which was 1.8 percent in 2018.
Another report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows more evidence of this slowing growth trend. According to these data, when adjusted for inflation, medicine prices fell 2.8 percent from December 2017 to December 2018.
These reports are further evidence that we don’t have to choose between innovation and affordability.
Learn more at LetsTalkAboutCost.org.
