Essay On Prescription Drug Cost

Prescription Drug Costs Position Statement The increasing cost of prescription drugs has become a major concern for prescribers, patients, payers and policy makers in the United States. The U.S is the leader in research and development of lifesaving prescription drugs that are important clinical breakthroughs, but are also very costly. Prescription drug prices in the United States are among the highest in the world. The reason drug prices are higher in the U.S is that we do not have a national healthcare system that negotiates with the pharmaceutical distributors. U.S drug price negotiations occur between the distributors and insurance companies. This has led to controversy among the leaders and citizens of the U.S on whether or not the government should play a role in prescription drug pricing.
In response to the increasing cost of prescription drugs the Medicare Modernization Act created a drug benefit for seniors called Part D that went into effect on January 1st 2006. Medicare is a government funded program and functions very similar to insurance. Enrollees pay a monthly premium, a deductible, a share of the cost of their prescriptions, and the Medicare plan pays the rest. Medicare was designed to work with insurance companies and other private

The prescription drug industry has a low marginal cost and high fixed cost. Of course, morally, no one likes the idea of a senior citizen with no drug coverage who is unable to afford the prescriptions that they need. On the other hand, people don’t want to risk pharmaceutical manufacturers to be financially unable to innovate and bring even better health benefits to the U.S. In order to create a cost-control solution the U.S all parties involved will need to compromise and come up with a balanced plan that benefits patients and produce revenue for continued drug