Jean-Pierre
Garnier Presents His Prescription for Health Care
By Malorye A. Branca
Let the government pay for most of it, but have private companies provide it: That’s the formula GlaxoSmithKline CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier recommends for the U.S. health care system. “It’s a huge mistake for governments to micromanage the health care system,” Garnier said, speaking at the World Health Care Congress (WHCC) in Washington D.C. this week. “That’s why Germany, the U.K., and even Canada are doing more and more privatizing,” he added.
According to Garnier, the government should provide coverage for catastrophic events, some subsidies for the poor, and then do as little “regulation and refereeing” as possible. When asked why the U.S.’s Medicare Part D drug prescription benefit, which is privatized, is a mess, he pointed out that “Medicare is regulated in a very detailed manner, and it’s when the government tries to reach out with an invisible arm and control everything that things go wrong.” But he added that Part D is just the “first act” in what is certain to be a much longer drama. “There will be a second act to correct what’s wrong,” he said.
CEO of the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company, Garnier also had some advice for non-governmental agencies trying to improve health care in developing nations. “Stop pointing the finger at capitalism and put more blame on the governments for abandoning their own people,” he advised. He described the “heart-breaking” face of a 22-year-old, AIDS-infected woman he saw in South Africa recently. “A stare full of anger, resignation, and fear for her young children,” he said. Meanwhile, South Africa’s health minister recently recommended the use of “lemon skin and garlic” to treat the disease, according to a news report. Even more tragic is the local belief that men can be cured by having sex with a virgin, which has led to the rape of children, including infants.
Pharmaceutical companies have a duty to help too, by providing critical drugs to developing nations at a reasonable cost. However, “You guys can’t bargain for the same price,” he told the WHCC audience, which included many of the U.S.’s largest employers and health insurance providers. GlaxoSmithKline, Garnier added, was the first company to provide HIV drugs to developing nations at an “incremental” cost.
While conceding that some drugs are currently overpriced, Garnier said that those typically come from smaller companies that seek huge pricing premiums because they have so few products on the market. “The way to limit excesses is to start really measuring value,” he said. He also pointed out that in the vast majority of cases, trying to save money by cutting back on drugs or making cheaper substitutions is a mistake. “Increase co-pays and more patients end up in the emergency rooms,” Garnier said. “Smart people don’t look at health care as silos, such as drug costs; they look at diseases and how to best manage them.”
He also warned that getting real change in the U.S. health care system would require tremendous political courage and leadership. The U.S. should also look around the world and learn from what has failed or succeeded in other countries that have been quicker to enact reforms.
One area where the U.S. is way ahead of most European countries is in medical consumerism. According to Garnier, most Europeans have been “anesthetized” by their governments, and expect to be taken care of and have decisions made for them. “The reason DTC (direct to consumer) wasn’t allowed in Europe wasn’t to protect consumers,” he said, “but because the governments didn’t want patients to know more.”
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© Copyright 2006, Cambridge Healthtech Institute. All Rights Reserved
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