Latest / The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
Why Governments Pay Two Different Prices for the Same Drug
In this episode of The Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna uncover a bizarre quirk in government healthcare spending: federal programs like Medicare and the VA can pay wildly different prices for the exact same prescription drug. Using a concrete example—a common cholesterol-lowering statin that costs the VA $12 per month but Medicare Part D $95—they explore how fragmented purchasing power, legal restrictions on price negotiation, and administrative silos create this inefficiency. The conversation digs into the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act's 'non-interference' clause, the…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.