Have you ever thought about the pricing of medication suddenly rising? Most of your allergy medication that is prescribed is a big cut out of a lot of people’s budget. Health care companies are not playing a big role in delivering health services to lower class people, which they should. We all should recognize that our local drug companies are running up the cost of health care. That’s not okay! To begin with, drug companies are not helping people by providing a series of choices people can choose to get better health care services. One reason pricing goes up is because of fraud. People gaming the system or committing fraud are making the prices increase on a lot of known medications. People who game the system apply false prices on drugs which leads to the government paying companies. To stop this we need to have harsher penalties for …show more content…
Many consumers and small employers are going through struggling times to afford health insurance and their medications. Those consumers and employers are having more problems with their health because they cannot afford the high medications that are being prescribed to them. Because of the rising in health care costs 49 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2011. The breakdown of U.S health care spending in 2010 was a total of $2.6 trillion. 51% of the 2.6 trillion went to the pay of medical services performed by hospitals and physicians. The other half of the 2.6 trillion is yet to come up (its location or where it went). Hospitals got the most pay (30.74%) in 2010, that’s because half of that money was used for medical equipment and the other half for pay for medical services that was being performed. According to an article found on the Aetna website “Prescription drugs grew by just 1.2% while hospitals and physician cost grew by 4.9%”. Prescription drugs get 10.01% of the 2.6 trillion that was spent in
In order to sustain the market share in this highly competitive industry, the pharmacies have to establish and maintain strong working relationships with PBMs that have power to divest particular clients from a pharmacy by denying reimbursement privileges to their customers. Buyer Power Strong It is not hard to obtain the same drugs from different sources, so the customer loyalty is virtually non-existent and the pharmacies have to try extremely hard to sustain their consumer base. Threats of substitutes Weak There are very few alternatives to drugs. Alternatives are practically limited to traditional medicine.
Abramsons points are well taken, and it truly is a shame that the medical industry has become a business. In my opinion, if the pharmaceutical industry was taken out of the hands of the capitalist marketplace and given the to the government, it would become less of a business. Prescription drugs are not ordinary consumer goods; they are products that can ultimately save lives. If a money-oriented company controls these products, it is inevitable selling the drug would become a greater priority than actually creating a beneficial drug. Which as a result, will to the creation many well-marketed yet ineffective
Why do consumers purchase specific drugs for various ailments, sicknesses or diseases they might have? Why do physicians prescribe certain drugs over competitive drugs that may be available to the public? Why is it that most of us can easily name specific drugs that fit the many ailments of today’s society? On the surface the answer might be as simple as good TV advertising or radio commercials or even internet adds. The truth of matter is the major pharmaceutical manufacturers own the patents on these drugs and this gives them all of the marketing budget and muscle they need to promote the drug and control the pricing. The incentives for larger pharmaceutical companies are very enticing and as a result, they don’t mind spending the time in clinical trials and patent courts to get their drugs approved. Some will even get patents on the process by which the drug is manufactured, ensuring that no competitor can steal the drug or the process. This protects their large financial investment and nearly guarantees a large return for their investors. Many consumer rights groups claim this is nothing more than legalizing monopolies for the biggest manufacturers.
Medicare is a social policy many of our seniors look to for their stability when they reach 65
Why does not America do something about these rip-off companies? In 2001 George Bush promised to lower the amount spent on prescriptions for the citizens, but in 2002, Americans spent $162.4 billion on prescribed drugs. (Steele 47) Drugs prices are not likely to fall back down to what they were years ago. They fall into the same category as fuel prices for automobiles; they always increase. There are more pharmaceutical companies present in the U.S. than any other country in the world. Th...
While many low-income families obtain prescription coverage through government programs and may receive relatively generous drug benefits, those who have no prescription coverage are required to pay the full retail price charged at their pharmacies. Because the cash-paying customers are
Why are the prices so high? Some critics of the drug companies argue that the larger firms are ripping off the American public, are dishonest and, in some cases, unsafe. On the other hand, there are health care workers such as doctors and their supporters who claim that research and testing for drugs costs money. This supposedly justifies their prices for their products. Also, as an argument to their side, they say that their practice is a benefit to the improvement to mankind. It is a life saving business, but are these prices justified? As one can see, this is a very important issue in medicine today. It affects everyone involved with medicine, which is much of the American public. It also affects the physicians and drug makers.
There is no doubt that healthcare cost are rising out of control. No one likes the
2. The twin problems of the health care industry as viewed by society are cost and access. First of all, the cost of getting health care is very high and it is getting higher each day. This has been mostly caused by the combination of high cost and an increase in quantity of services provided to the communities. The other problem involves access to health care. American enjoy limited or no access to health care. Many efforts have been done to reform this, but still but still many people are left without access to the care. These two problems are related due to the fact that if the health care industry gets to high off course people no longer will be able to have any access to it. The higher prices are, the lower access people have to it.
Even with health care coverage being at the tips of our finger, we still are positioned with the question how will I pay for this, as well as where this money comes from. Reports have indicated that the United States has spent “$2.2 trillion for health care in 2007, which was an increase of 6.7% from $2.1 trillion in 2006” (Wexler). This revenue comes to all of our taxable expenses, which in turn trickles down to the Affordable Care Act. Receiving any medical care, is expensive in general, from staffing of the hospitals to creating the medication that someone needs to further their lives. Wexler addresses the increase of medication production. ” One of the fastest-growing components of health care is the market for prescription drugs. In 2006 Americans spent $216.7 billion on prescription medication—this was an 8.5% increase from $199.7 billion in 2005” (Wexler) The increase can be a good way to think of how the money is spent. We fund the projects that in turn create fundamental medications to help those who need
An issue that is widely discussed and debated concerning the United States’ economy is our health care system. The health care system in the United States is not public, meaning that the states does not offer free or affordable health care service. In Canada, France and Great Britain, for example, the government funds health care through taxes. The United States, on the other hand, opted for another direction and passed the burden of health care spending on individual consumers as well as employers and insurers. In July 2006, the issue was transparency: should the American people know the price of the health care service they use and the results doctors and hospitals achieve? The Wall Street Journal article revealed that “U.S. hospitals, most of them nonprofit, charged un-insured patients prices that vastly exceeded those they charged their insured patients. Driving their un-insured patients into bankruptcy." (p. B1) The most expensive health care system in the world is that of America. I will talk about the health insurance in U.S., the health care in other countries, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and my solution to this problem.
There are three issues when it comes to the health care cost rising. The first is the rising cost in prescription drugs. The second area of rising cost is the increased technologies when it comes to the medical industry. The third problem is the aging population. Prescription drugs are the area of the fastest growing health care expense, and it is projected to grow at 20 to 30 percent each year over the next several years. There are many newer, more expensive drugs on the market, and the use of these prescriptions is exploding. In addition, with so much television advertising, many consumers ask their doctors for expensive, brand name drugs when there may actually be a generic drug that works just as well.
Healthcare has now become one of the top social as well as economic problems facing America today. The rising cost of medical and health insurance impacts the livelihood of all Americans in one way or another. The inability to pay for medical care is no longer a problem just affecting the uninsured but now is becoming an increased problem for those who have insurance as well. Health care can now been seen as a current concern. One issue that we face today is the actual amount of healthcare that is affordable. Each year millions of people go without any source of reliable coverage.
In recent years’ health reform has been a driving force in the United States political system. If you watch the news, you will understand how citizens, the government, or the economy are or might be affected by some sort of change in medical regulation. One of these hot topic issues is the cost of prescription drugs. Every major drug market besides the United States regulates the price of drugs in some way (Abbott and Vernon). By the United States not doing so, many believe it opens consumers up to being exploited by large pharmaceutical companies.
With the United Nations listing health care as natural born right and the escalating cost of health care America has reached a debatable crisis. Even if you do have insurance it's a finical strain on most families.