National Association of Chain Drug Stores
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Plan Status“Principles of Healthcare Reform” issued.Number of People CoveredAs many Americans as possible.
Estimated CostNot addressed.
Payment Scheme NACDS opposes a single-payer system, favoring a primarily private insurance system combined with public programs. |
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Plan in Brief
- NACDS members are the leading retail chain pharmacies and suppliers of products and services to chain pharmacies.
- The “Principles of Healthcare Reform” were issued May 6, 2008, at a Senate Finance Committee meeting addressing the topic “Seizing the New Opportunity for Health Reform.”
- NACDS promotes the role of pharmacy in improving access, affordability, and quality of health care and urges policymakers to consider pharmacy in all reform plans.
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Impact on Federal Government
- NACDS encourages policymakers to consider how pharmacy can help to control costs by encouraging appropriate use of medication and promoting good health.
- NACDS’s principles support use of existing public coverage programs in addition to private insurance.
Impact on States
- NACDS encourages policymakers to consider how pharmacy can help to control costs by encouraging appropriate use of medication and promoting good health.
Impact on Insurers
- NACDS’s principles support the role of private insurers, “augmented by” public coverage programs.
- NACDS encourages recognition of the value of prescription pharmaceuticals and supports appropriate use of generic drugs.
Impact on Providers
- NACDS supports equitable reimbursement to providers.
- NACDS supports health IT, specifically e-prescribing and electronic medical records.
Impact on Employers
- NACDS warns against reforms that create coverage burdens for employers.
Impact on Individuals
- NACDS stresses its members’ key role in communicating with individuals regarding appropriate pharmaceutical use along with promoting disease screening, prevention, and management.
- NACDS supports cost-sharing on the part of individuals to encourage cost-effective choices but stresses that these costs should be reasonable and should not prevent access to care.
- NACDS believes patients should have choice regarding where to access pharmacy services.
Proponents/Opponents
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Supporters of the NACDS principles get behind the group’s advocacy of health IT in particular; the NACDS concurs with many health care reform advocates in emphasizing the critical role that health IT can play in delivering more cost-effective, high-quality care. Other support comes from employers, especially small employers, who agree that shifting costs to them will have a negative effect on their ability to compete and on the economy in general.
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Critics of the NACDS principles point to the organization’s opposition to a single-payer system. Those who advocate a single-payer system say it is the way to avoid the costly bureaucracy of the current system, with its multiple coverage vendors.
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For Further Information
About NACDS
Read the NACDS Principles of Healthcare Reform
Read NACDS’s Open Letter to the Presidential Candidates
Chain Drugstores Group Gears Up for Ad Blitz in Washington Region
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Key Targets for InvestmentChain pharmacies and suppliers, Health IT, Retail health clinics, Disease prevention and management, Generic pharmaceuticals.
Notable Feature
- NACDS launched an advertising campaign to highlight the role of pharmacy in health care.
- A key role that pharmacists play in health care is ensuring appropriate medication use; NACDS estimates that patient failure to comply with medication leads to $177 billion in direct and indirect costs annually.
- NACDS warns against health care reforms that could raise costs and hurt the economy.
- Among NACDS’s recommendations are exploration of nonpharmacy measures such as in-store health clinics and healthy living education.
- NACDS notes that pharmacy reimbursements should cover not just medication costs but also the costs of dispensing medications and providing other forms of care.
Experts' Comments“ Pharmacists are among the most trusted professionals in the nation, and are recognized as the most accessible healthcare providers. Community-based pharmacies offer the valuable combination of healthcare professionalism in a consumer-focused environment. … Pilot projects have found that utilizing pharmacists in the management of medication therapy, disease state management, immunizations, healthcare screenings, and other professional healthcare services improves the health of patients with chronic diseases, and reduces overall healthcare costs."
-- NACDS Principles of Healthcare Reform
“We are taking the offensive and establishing an increasingly proactive stance. We are turning up the volume on this central message: Pharmacies are essential to healthcare. "
-- Steven Anderson
NACDS President and CEO, in “The Hill,” February 4, 2008
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Interest Groups 
