Increasing Cost Of Medication Expenses

Imagine this: you are tragically diagnosed with a chronic life-threatening illness. Your only hope to survive is through medication to treat your disorder. The medicine is pricy but you can work out the costs each month. One day, you go to fill your prescriptions and realize the cost of a $13 pill has jumped to an astounding $750. You need this patented medication to survive and to afford it you end up losing your home, filing for bankruptcy, and sleeping in your car. This story sounds fictional but it is the reality for many Americans who can no longer afford their grossly overpriced medications.

In recent years, prescription drugs spending has been one of the most rapid rising components in the healthcare industry. In 2008, prescription drugs spending

However, prescriptions drugs has seen a steady cost increase. Not only in out of pocket care but also total health expenditures. In 2015 fourty-two percent of prescribed drug spending is expected to have been financed by the public sector in comparison twenty-two percent is covered out of pocket by Canadians. Fortunately in recent years the trend of prescription drug spending has slowed. The lower growth rate is in part to patent expirations and implementations of generic pricing policies.

Both health care organization and individuals, who purchase and consume prescription drugs can play a great role in reducing the nation’s total prescription drug expenditures as well as individual expenses. Since 2004, one out of every ten dollars on health care has been spent on prescription drugs since 2004 follow-on a sharp increase in 12.2 percent in 2014 (Kennedy & Morgan, 2009). This figure indicates that while the U.S. health care gets the best technology and infrastructures in treating its nations, there is an undeniable increase in health care cost, especially, in prescription drugs.

In contrast to the newer prescription drugs, already existing prescription drugs cumulatively increased 81% from 2005 to 2013. Of these prescription drugs, the ones that treat chronic conditions have had a price increase of $4,336 in 2006 to $11,870 in 2013. These high price points on drugs that have been on the market for several years are a significant factor in the accelerating prescription drug inflammation. An example of rise in existing prescription drugs is Jazz Pharmaceuticals' Xyrem, a drug which purpose is to treat narcolepsy, was in 2007 priced at $2.04 per 1-milliliter dose. In 2014, Jazz Pharmaceuticals' Xyrem was priced at $19.40 per 1-milliliter dose. This means that there was 841% price increase over the course of seven years on the same exact drug. Jazz Pharmaceuticals' is not the only company increasing its prescription drugs in such high amounts. Eli LIlly had a price increase of 350% over the course of 6 years from 2007 to 2013, and Mylan hiked its epipen cost that treats anaphylaxis by 220% in the same six years. Companies say these costs are higher due to a number of reasons. One being that the high costs of these prescription drugs are being used to help find more efficient cures to disease, saving money in the long run. Another being that everything in our economy is inflating so it is only natural that prescription drugs increase as well.

When it comes to prescriptions, people ask: what are prescription drugs? Who benefits from prescription drugs and why are prescription drugs important to society? Throughout a person’s entire life, prescription drugs absorb the body and whether the issue is for headaches, cramps, or sickness, prescriptions is there to make a person feel better. Moreover, different types of prescription drugs treat different types of illnesses or reduce the symptoms. However, people do better toughing it out than taking a prescribed drug. A person who has a cold and is taking a prescribed drug has a higher risk of a disease while another person who has a cold and is not taking a prescription drug does not. Due to the issues, prescription drugs need to reform

Currently, there is coverage in the news regarding high-cost specialty drugs. Who is responsible for paying these high costs? Approximately Seventy-one percent of the public believe new expensive drugs that are recommended by physicians, should be covered by their health insurance; however, seventeen percent believe the individual needing these medications should pay for it themselves (DiJulio, Firth, & Brodie, 2015). Nationwide, individuals with serious diseases are dwindling through the flaws of our nation's healthcare system. Many individuals are unable to afford medications that they are in need of even if they have good jobs and insurance. In the passage below we explore this topic in depth, weighing in on our federal, state, and local

Prescription drugs all around are very expensive, but without out them some of us would not be able to say we are alive. We can still see the price of these prescription drugs go through the roof as we speak. Although most of low-income workers can barely afford medicine and drugs, one way or another, we make it work because without it we would be dead. Although having insurance covers a lot of our medical health expenses, such as medical bills, prescription bills, hospital bills and things of this nature. As the cost of prescriptions keep going up, sometimes our insurance companies cannot cover the cost because they have hit their Cap of money able to spend. Some insurance companies have Cap for a person or a cap for a whole family it can be yearly or annually it just depends on the “deal” you worked out with your insurance provider. Most families, like my own make due to cover the cost of having insurance, yet we have to still be able to cover what remains of the prescription cost if we want to live. Money sometimes is very tight and meeting these necessary financial situations get tough.

Over the last two decades, public healthcare spending in Canada continues to increase faster than ever and is continuing to do so. Thus, it makes it harder for governments to finance, and as a result healthcare funding takes up a large share of the government 's budget (Canadian Institution for health information, 2012) . Although Canada provides citizens with universal coverage, but both the public and private plans do not guarantee that all of the five principles that Canada’s health system stands by. Consequently, research has shown that pharmaceutical cost is the third cost driver in health expenditures after hospitals and physicians (National Health Expenditure Database, 2013). This paper will explore the effects that pharmaceutical costs have on the healthcare system. To illustrate this, particular areas will be explored such as location, medication and the price control. Moreover, advantages will be discussed as well as potential challenges that accompany with pharmaceutical costs.

Medication cost dramatically, affect both patients and prescribers. Chapter 3 within this week’s readings from Woo and Robinson (2016), focuses on Rational Drug Selections, emphasizes on cost as a deal breaker for many patients with medication compliance. Insurance companies are tightening their policies to the extreme in not covering medication expenses, leaving patients limited choices as well as resources to becoming forced to pay out of pocket or not take their medications. It is vital that prescribers practice within the means of each individual patient, meaning, “prescribing the most cost-effective drug for the patient” (Woo & Robinson, 2016, p. 32). Within chapter 1, Woo and Robinson mention, “Statistics cited often placed patient adherence

Because pharmaceutical companies have so much power over pricing, they have started to raise prices with no motive other than more profit. In recent years, the industry has seen a steep price increase in drugs. These increases, in some cases, seem inexplicable. Regarding this is the recent example of the EpiPen, a common emergency drug used for patients with severe allergies. In the past, the EpiPen was available to patients for as low as 40 dollars. Now the price is “almost 600 dollars.” (Woodward, Layton) The problem with this is the device has had no fundamentally different changes to it. This means the pharmaceutical company responsible for the EpiPen raised the price for no reason other than more money in the company’s pocket. A

The pharmaceutical industry claims that increasing drug cost are justifiable due to the cost involved in advancing a drug to market and marketplace competition, even though policymakers want transparency in pricing to understand the true cost involved in drug production.

In 2014, it was estimated that Americans spent over $373 billion on pharmaceuticals, which is an increase of 13 percent and considered the highest increase since 2001. With the Affordable Care Act in place, it is estimated that patients filled approximately 24 percent more prescriptions in 2014 than in 2013. There are several reasons to account for this spending growth. The first is the increased spending of $20 billion on new medication brands. Secondly, over 161,000 people started treatment for hepatitis C treatment, which is approximately ten times more than the previous year. The third reason is an increase for recent innovative treatment for cancer and autoimmune diseases (IMShealth.com, 2015). With health care spending continuing to rise, Americans have at least three options to help reduce out-of-pocket expenses. Cost-saving methods include switching from brand name drugs to generic medications, discussing potential alternative medications that are less expensive with healthcare providers, and rallying lawmaker to change current laws to restrict the amount pharmaceutical companies can charge for medications.

Americans filled an expected 3.8 billion retail solutions in 2011 around 12 for each individual in the United States, by and large. Sixty percent of all Americans take a doctor prescribed medication in any given year, and almost all seniors do. Drug treatment is ostensibly the most proficient technique to treat most sicknesses regularly substituting for more extravagant healing center and surgical medicines. Contrasted with different treatments, medications are a relative deal yet they can be lavish. Endeavors to rein in the runaway expense of human services must concentrate on fitting, yet productively controlled, utilization of professionally prescribed medications.

In 2014, the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world had a total revenue of $429.4 billion dollars. One common misconception is most profits the pharmaceutical companies collect, goes back into research and development (R&D) of new medications. Yet, in that same time period only $65.8 billion dollars of the total $429.4 billion went toward R&D. Their combined profits for 2014 were $99.8 billion dollars with an average profit margin of 19.6%, Pfizer is the highest being at an amazing 43% (BBC News, 2014). Seeing all of these facts and figures collectively, shows it is clear the US is spending too much on healthcare. An important question is, why and what can we do to decrease our spending?