Gerdtham U G, Johannesson M
Centre for Health Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.
Pharmacoeconomics. 1996 Jun;9(6):478-83. doi: 10.2165/00019053-199609060-00002.
Expenditure on drugs is increasing rapidly in many countries, and this has led to increased interest in measures to contain drug expenditure. One measure that has been discussed is to increase user charges for prescription drug. In this article, we consider whether or not raising user charges decreases the consumption of drugs. We also discuss how to judge if increased user charges for drugs are desirable from an economic viewpoint. We conclude that the decision to increase user charges for prescription drugs should not be viewed as an issue of cost containment, but as a matter of balancing the societal costs against the societal benefits of increased user charges.
在许多国家，药品支出正在迅速增加，这引发了人们对控制药品支出措施的更多关注。一种被讨论的措施是提高处方药的使用者付费。在本文中，我们探讨提高使用者付费是否会减少药品消费。我们还讨论了如何从经济角度判断提高药品使用者付费是否可取。我们得出结论，提高处方药使用者付费的决定不应被视为成本控制问题，而应看作是在权衡提高使用者付费的社会成本与社会效益之间的平衡问题。
