Surprise. This may explain why insurance companies like Blue Cross are raising our rates 25% and up a year.
In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.And mind you, they're already gouging us for prescription drug prices, charging Americans three to five times what they charge Europeans.
The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year.
