Wonkbook: Why Mylan's 'savings card' won't make the EpiPen cheaper for all patients

By Carolyn Y. Johnson After being blasted for price hikes on its lifesaving EpiPen allergy injections, the drugmaker Mylan announced Thursday that it will expand access to the product — not by lowering the price, but by creating a savings card that will cover up to $300 of its EpiPen 2-Pak. The list price of the drug is $609 for a …   The latest economic and domestic policy from Wonkblog   Mylan is confronting a controversy over the price of its EpiPen. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski, File) By Carolyn Y. Johnson After being blasted for price hikes on its lifesaving EpiPen allergy injections, the drugmaker Mylan announced Thursday that it will expand access to the product — not by lowering the price, but by creating a savings card that will cover up to $300 of its EpiPen 2-Pak. The list price of the drug is $609 for a two-pack of the injectors, up from less than $100 in 2007, according to data from Truven Health Analytics. Although the company said that the savings card would halve the cost of the drug to commercially insured patients who pay full price, outside experts said the overall impact will likely be small and that it did not amount to a solution to the broader problem. Such savings cards are a classic public relations move by the pharmaceutical industry, said Harvard Medical School professor Aaron Kesselheim, and it will only be used by a fraction of the people who need the drug. For example, such savings cards are illegal in government health programs such as Medicaid. "These don't actually do anything about the price itself, because the high price is still being paid by the insurer, which then ends up being reflected in increasing premiums," Kesselheim said. "This is not a public health solution." Read the rest on Wonkblog.   Chart of the day Katie Ledecky's ceremonial first pitch at Nationals Park Wednesday night was low and outside, right on the corner of the strike zone. Christopher Ingraham has more.  Top policy tweets "More evidence that soda taxes cut soda drinking. (This time, in the U.S.) https://t.co/vukSmEfQK1" -- @sangerkatz "From keeping Fed dividend to a guaranteed FOMC spot, nobody discusses community banks' giant recent regulation wins https://t.co/9EW5eWsOnG" -- @rortybomb "Katrinia Pierson on CNN just said Trump hasn't 'changed his position on immigration, he's just changed the words he's saying.' "-- @ErikWemple ADVERTISEMENT   Most Recent Posts from Wonkblog Why Mylan’s ‘savings card’ won’t make EpiPen cheaper for all patients Mylan's 'savings card' for patients won't lower the price of EpiPen. By Carolyn Y. Johnson  •  Read more »   How Katie Ledecky’s first pitch ranks among history’s best — and worst So just how good was her pitch last night? By Christopher Ingraham  •  Read more »   How to see how a company treats female employees — before you even take the job How to evaluate a company culture at the start of a job search By Julia Carpenter  •  Read more »   Why Trumpism could be with us for a very long time Even if Trump loses, you have to remember why his supporters won't go away By Matt O'Brien  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Recommended for you   Federal Insider Federal news and policy update, in your inbox daily. Sign Up »         Share Wonkbook:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. You received this email because you signed up for a Wonkblog newsletter. For additional free newsletters or to manage your newsletters, click here. We respect your privacy. If you believe that this email has been sent to you in error or you no longer wish to receive email from The Washington Post, click here. Contact us for help. ©2016 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071