Those statements are only true for drugs with no alternatives - which doesn't apply to all (most?) drugs. And, even for those, couldn't the government say "we're not going to pay $(RANSOMPRICE) for drug X. If you insist that we do, we will not buy any other drugs from you but will instead source from your competitors at all times."
Private payers are free to do that, but don't. The reason why they don't is because they have customers and telling someone "no you can't have this drug" makes people really upset.
I'm not sure Medicare would have much more success in that area. I could imagine politicians phones ringing off the hook with call from retirees stating "why won't you pay for my drug"?
Lets be honest, apart from generics, are you able to dive through source material to find older, equally effective, but with different side effect drugs?
Look back at the last paragraph in my response above. Medicare is required to cover a number of classes of drugs. they can't say "no, we're not paying for it."
As a result, Medicare has no negotiating power. Unless you can walk away from the table, why would drug companies budge?
And if Medicare did have the power to say "no", how would that work politically? I'm guessing the AARP would be up in arms if Medicare said "no, we're not paying for that drug, find an alternative."
And the price you quote are comparing list prices in the US to net prices (that's usually what's published in the EU and Canada).
Humira is significantly discounted in the US. 40 to 50% discounts are not unusual for large payers.
A great example are the HCV drugs. When a 2nd class of products entered the market, the drug manufacturers rushed to discount their products to maintain market share. As a result, the US price is lower than the prices in Europe.[1]
[1]http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2015/12/04/for-hep...