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“ The article in Health Affairs outlines how a drug-licensing system might be used to pay for statin drugs — the most-popular form of prescription medication used to treat high cholesterol. Researchers examined the current costs of the drugs and how the new pricing plan might affect patient compliance — whether patients are taking drugs as prescribed by their physicians. Researchers propose that consumers pay a $195 fee for an annual license for the statin drugs — equal to what most consumers now pay out of their own pockets each year if they have insurance plans that require $25 per-prescription co-payments. Insurance companies would pay an additional $374 to drug companies for each statin license. Because there would be no monthly out-of-pocket payments for consumers, researchers suggest that patients would be more likely to take their prescriptions. Analyzing past research about the impact of rising co-payments on patient compliance, researchers suggest the average annual use among patients taking statins would climb from 7.8 months to 9.8 months under the new pricing plan.