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Rebecca A. Derby, MPH
Waltham, Mass

JAMA. 1997;277(16):1277.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The article by Dr Peabody and colleagues¹ on the Australian health care delivery system and its relevance to the United States offered much interesting information, but their statement that pharmaceutical costs per capita in Australia are 20% greater than in the United States may be misleading to those trying to gain an understanding of Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS). If accurate, this figure demonstrates more about lack of access to medicines in the United States than expense of drugs with the PBS.

It has been suggested that prescription drug use rates are lower in the United States than Australia. This is primarily due to 2 factors: first, lack of prescription drug insurance coverage in the United States and, second, the higher prices that manufacturers charge in the United States compared with the rest of the industrialized world.

Manufacturers' prices for the same prescription drug are generally . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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