A pharmaceutical company has won exclusive rights to sell a synthetic form of a hormone to prevent premature births.
A drug for high-risk pregnant women has cost about $10 to $20 per injection but this week the price shoots up to $1,500 a dose, meaning the total cost during a pregnancy could be as much as $30,000.
That is because the drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved. But recently, KV Pharmaceutical of St. Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, know as Makena.
Under ObamaCare, to stay grandfathered a self-funded employer would have to assume this additonal risk. Of course, employees who have been shielded from the true costs of health care for a generation won’t be impacted since most health care plans pay for drugs with a co-pay. All the employee will see is their lousy $35 co-pay while the employer writes a check for almost $1,500 more, weekly for as long as the pregnancy lasts.