As a healthcare professional, I try my best to reduce the cost and maximize benefit of pharmaceuticals. Here’s a classic case where we were able to save a patient some money without negatively impacting patient care. I was emailed this info graphic, and thought it was kind of interesting. So, how much money does the US spend on prescription drugs? What do you all think?
“The Price of Prescription Drugs” on Health Perch
I agree I think drug companies are profiting way too much from sick people. Even if they manage to recuperate the money they lost from research, getting the drug approved to the market and paying their staff; they also have a shared interest to their stock holders, which leads to a continuum of taking advantage of sick people… It’s a disgusting cycle.
Healthcare is a business which unfortunately demands profiteering from the sick. Businesses are usually subject to regulation so that greedy, risk taking and profit driven individuals or companies cannot exploit venerable consumers.
Sadly, regulation is lacking particularly with the drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers. The recent mergers and acquisitions do not help. The pharmacies, patients and even the government (Medicare and Medicaid) are stuck in the middle and forced to bear this expense.
As much as I do not want more overall regulation, in the setting of health care we need it. Namenda’s forced brand switch with Namenda XR last year is a prime example of drug company putting profit above well being.
With the ACA we are effectively all in the same boat. Patients should realize the unless they are paying privately for their medications the expenses are coming from society as a whole. Education, preventative medicine, better control of chronic conditions and regulating abuse of the system might help.
Anecdotally, it seems we are dealing with a larger and sicker population which necessitates higher costs..
Yes, the numbers are huge. Now no one thinks about how people feel. If you have no money, then die, it turns out like this. I realized for myself that if I need medicines, then buy them only in online pharmacies. Because in ordinary pharmacies the prices are unbelievable. This is very bad. Currently, the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable business. It seems to me that the government is involved in all this. Because this problem has been around for a long time. And absolutely nothing happens.