This is an image of a visualization comparing costs of prescriptions (public buying power vs. private payer). It highlights the difference of having a mass purchasing program. For example, some of the medications are so cheap that they barely appear on the graph, such as risperidone (Risperdal). Comparatively, the cost at drugstore.com is $400/month.

The focus is to highlight what an uninsured person would pay for these prescriptions. It is obvious that the public buying pool is able to push down the cost of these expensive medications far beyond what a drugstore can sell them for (drugstore.com was used as a basis because no pharmacy data was available).

Image via Wikipedia

When insurance enters the picture, the scenario changes to a market situation, rather than a buyer/seller basis. Modeling this data may happen in the future. Dates for price matching was May 2010. All data retrieved from drugstore.com and the Oregon Prescription Drug Program.

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