Abstract

The rising cost of pharmaceuticals has been an issue of growing concern in many countries both developing and developed. In the United States, high pharmaceutical prices cause significant financial stress to patients and create barriers to access, causing treatable conditions to deteriorate. Many legislative attempts have been attempted on various levels to control prices, but in the United States it has been mostly left to states to address the issue. In this comparative case study, pharmaceutical utilization data and sentiment data are analyzed from three states to represent various approaches: South Dakota to represent states with little legislation, Rhode Island to represent states with average amounts of legislation, and New Jersey to represent states with high levels of legislation. This analysis will provide insight into whether current legislative efforts being undertaken at the state level are proving to be sufficient to tackle an ongoing and worsening problem.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Drugs--Prices--United States; Pharmaceutical policy--United States--States--Evaluation; Drugs--Law and legislation--United States--States--Evaluation

Publication Date

3-28-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Science, Technology and Public Policy (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Public Policy (CLA)

Advisor

Eric Hittinger

Advisor/Committee Member

Qing Miao

Advisor/Committee Member

Iris Asllani

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

STPP-MS

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