Gabrielle Mérite
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The United States spends more on prescription drugs on a per capita basis than most other countries do, and costs continue to rise. A RAND study found that prices for prescription drugs in the United States in 2018 were 256 percent of those in 32 comparison countries.
In the animation below, Gabrielle Mérite addressed this complex subject that may seem distant from American consumers but has a concrete impact on their health and finances. She uses imagery of bills stacking up to illustrate the reality of drug prices.
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A brand-name pill that costs $10 in the United States would cost about $3.50 in Germany and Canada, $3.25 in Japan, $3.00 in the UK, and $2.75 in Mexico.
For the same brand-name pill, the U.S. cost would be $10 while the overall cost in 32 high-income countries would be about $3.00.
Rising U.S. prescription drug costs likely play a central role in driving higher U.S. health care spending. However, the last study to systematically compare drug prices in the United States with those of other countries used data that are over a decade old. To fill this gap, RAND researchers examined 2018 prescription drug volume and price data to compare U.S. drug prices with those in 32 other high-income nations. Another study considered the effects of using drug prices in other countries to help set U.S. prices.
Gabrielle Mérite is an information designer specializing in empathetic data visualizations for truth-seeking, ethically driven organizations. Deeply passionate about social justice and humanity's responsibility for one another, her work breathes life into numbers so that people can truly feel their importance.
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