Oscar is reducing prices of popular medications to just $3 to help members get the meds they need. When 29% of adults skip meds (opens in new tab) because of costs and 1 in 4 Americans (opens in new tab) taking prescription drugs say those drugs are difficult to afford, the status quo isn’t good enough. People are often looking for prescription discounts, but they aren’t always easy to find or understand. We started Oscar to make health care easier. And that’s why we reinvented the way we think about prescriptions for our members.
Our solution: the $3 drug list. “We looked at the most common therapeutic areas for our members – and, with clinician input, we picked drugs that had the best cost and clinical effectiveness. We came up with a list of about a hundred drugs that represent 90% of the use cases that somebody might need a prescription for,” explains Dr. Vinod Mitta, VP of Pharmaceuticals at Oscar.
Lowering the price of meds lowers the cost of health care. When people can afford to take their prescribed dosage, they’re more likely to get and stay healthier. This means there are fewer doctor and emergency room visits and less time is wasted searching for answers. According to Mario Schlosser, the Oscar CEO, “Solving this problem is good for business, but making sure people have access to medication at a reasonable price isn’t a matter of economics, it’s a matter of ethics.”
Our approach to insulin is a good example of what we’re talking about. In 2016, the average cost of insulin was about $450 a month - or $5,400 a year. While the drug hasn’t changed dramatically over the years, it is classified differently than most drugs and has a complex manufacturing process that allows most companies to keep it out of . That, coupled with some creative patent strategies, is keeping costs of drugs high. This is good for drug companies - but not for diabetics. When a diabetic skips doses to lower costs, there is a very real chance of catastrophic illness or even death.