HP 609 Week 6 Assignment 1: Health Policy Event

HP 609 Week 6 Assignment 1: Health Policy Event

HP 609 Week 6 Assignment 1: Health Policy Event

Summary

Today’s discussion covered drug prices in the United States (U.S) and why these prices keep going up. The participants in this forum discussed a lot of information regarding why drug prices are high, from existing drug payers that exist, such as Medicare & Medicaid which are government payers and private payers, to comparing drug costs in the U.S versus other developed countries. Trump’s blueprints were also mentioned and how only a few people had seen or even read them. Another aspect of this discussion was how the high prices were in fact impacting the consumers, of which it was noted that consumers are sheltered from the actual costs, therefore, they never quite know how expensive their drugs are.  It was also pointed out that most physicians are clueless on the cost of the medications they prescribe. Factors that were leading to high prices were mentioned to be lack of competition, the generic drugs being prescribed more and yet there are drugs that are still expensive among many other factors, drugs not having substitution too drove the prices high.

Analysis

In today’s economy, people are having to choose between buying groceries, paying their bills and paying for their medications. High drug costs are not a new thing that just happened, drug prices have been spiking for a while now, however, when certain medications prices become unreasonable, then it is time to act. It was noted in a survey that it was not until the price of the Daraprim went up to 750 dollars (Hyman and Silver, 2019) that it was time for action. People are taking to rationing their medication due to affordability issues and the ends results are not good. People’s conditions are worsening as a result of this. Working toward solving the drug price problem has a lot to put into action, and this would take a while. Steps such as patent use, right diagnosis and treatment, allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies and free health care for all.

If the government initiates the patent use, it gives them the upper hand at stopping the monopoly that pharmaceuticals have been conducting. This would enable for multiple contractors to produce the same product even without the patent holder’s approval. This in turn leads to ease accessibility and availability of the same drug at a much cheaper price. Right diagnosis and treatment would also help patients not to spend money on unnecessary medication. Many a time a patient is given the wrong diagnosis and treated for that illness for a while before the error in diagnosis is finally realized. However, by this time the patient has already spent thousands of dollars on drugs that should not have been prescribed to begin with. Therefore, providers should look at results twice and critically before diagnosing patients, hence saving costs on treatment.

Having the Bipartisan Budget Act (H.R 1892) activated would also save the drug prices to an extent that manufacturers will not be increasing prices (Waxman et al, 2020) each time they have a slight change in the formulary. Companies developed a tendency to increase prices each time they made any chances to the formulary. This increase in prices always catches unaware especially if they really need that drug hence having to keep up with the prescription regardless of the price. Additionally, this Act would also help with closing the Medicare part D gap and increasing manufacturer drug cost liability (Waxman et al., 2020). The patients will still be expected to pay a fee for their prescriptions, but their coverage benefits will not be affected at the end of the year.

Free healthcare for all is another solution to consider. The U.S is a developed and wealthy country, whose population pays taxes. Using these taxes, the U.S can emulate other developed countries like Canada, Germany’s health care systems where all their people have

coverage and do the same for the American people. Then give people the choose to provide themselves with private coverage if they want to. This would give more chance for treatment for patients with chronic diseases like Diabetes. Over 9 percent of the people is diagnosed with Diabetes (Nguyen & Mui, 2020) and most often they need their medication like insulin to survive. However, knowing that insulin costs around 160 dollars a year for non-insulin patients and 512 dollars for insulin dependent patients (Nguyen & Mui, 2020) can be very costly for patients to afford. Having everyone covered through the same insurance would ensure treatment for all with no stress to the patients.

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References

Hyman, D. A., & Silver, C. (2019). Why are we Being Overcharged for Pharmaceuticals? What Should We Do About It? Journal of Legal Medicine, 39(2), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/01947648.2019.1645542

Nguyen, A., & Mui, K. (2020, April). The Staggering True Cost of Diabetes – GoodRx. Goodrx. https://www.goodrx.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Diabetes-Cost-White-Paper.pdf.

U.S. Drug Prices. The Forum at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. (2018, November 27). https://theforum.sph.harvard.edu/events/u-s-drug-prices/.

Waxman, H. A., Corr, B., Sharp, J., McDonald, R., & Kenyatta, K. (2020, October). Getting to Lower Prescription Drug Prices. commonwealth fund. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/Waxman_GettingtoLowerRxPrices_report_v3.pdf.