The Cost of Prescription Drugs in the United States

Prescription drugs are strong medications that require a prescription from a doctor or dentist. There are three different kinds of prescription drugs: opioids (used to relieve pain, ex. OxyContin), depressants (used to relieve anxiety or help a person sleep, ex. Xanax), and stimulants (used for treating ADHD, ex. Adderall).  

Prescription drugs are an essential part of treating and preventing disease; however, the cost of prescription drugs is skyrocketing, and it’s become a concern for patients, prescribers, payers, and policymakers. Also, it’s affecting the nations because America pays the highest drug prices in the world. Since 2001, the prices on prescription drugs have grown at an annual rate of six percent, which is a much higher rate than general inflation. There was a rapid growth from 2007, where per capita per person was climbing from $783 to $1,025 per capita in 2017. The US overall spent an estimate of 330 billion dollars on prescription drugs in 2017- a forty percent increase from 2007 (this included public/private spending and costs borne from insurance companies and government programs such as Medicare).

If the country continues to raise the price of prescription drugs, it’ll diminish the value of medicines for those who are unable to afford them, can increase  chronic disease, and more. In order to maintain the price of the drugs, America needs to propose actions that pharmacists and other health care professionals can do to help understand the factors and how to help within an affordable health budget. Researchers and authors such as Glen T. Schumock, Hilary Daniel, and Aaron S. Kesselheim have shown data, effects, and overall explained how to contain drug costs. 

To start, we have to understand what drew America to increase the price and why they continue to follow this route. These drug companies will increase the price because in the pharmaceutical market, the higher the price, the more drug companies make with more significant rebate payments. In other words, the money will go to pharmacy benefit managers, insurance companies, and employers rather than to the patients. Likewise, from 2010 to 2012, medication expenditures have increased after the expiration of patents on many widely used medications. Notably, in 2012, eighteen percent of prescription drugs were paid out of pocket, which was affecting patients. Some had to ask the doctor for lower-cost medications, use alternative therapies, and, worst of all, purchase drugs from another country. To add on, from 2013 and 2015, net spending on prescription drugs increased twenty percent, there was a  seventeen percent increase in health care costs, and to recieve prescription medication coverage only nineteen percent of employer-based had gotten insurance benefits. Because of this, the United States is in the top twenty highest-revenue-grossing drugs, which is three times greater than other countries like the United Kingdom.

Many factors have contributed to the rise in prescription drug prices, One of the main reasons is because there’s a lack of competition in the patent system for brand-name drugs in the US, which results in the manufacturer having lots of control over a given market, and having the ability to increase prices. Statistics also show that spending on high drugs of branded products is protected by market exclusivity provisions, which are granted from the US Patent and Trademark Office and the FDA. Brand-name drugs only comprise about ten percent, but with all of the dispensed prescriptions in the US, they account for seventy-two percent of drug spending. Also, brand-name drugs have the most significant increase in prescription drug expenditures which captures the attention from the public and leads to policymakers being able to increase the cost rather than older generic drugs. There’s also a lack of transparency in drug prices. For instance, it’s less competitive in the drug market to obtain certain drugs with other manufactures, and there’s a limited ability of other parties such as Medicare. Hence, there’s not much to negotiate drug prices. 

Raising the cost of these drugs was not benefical at all and in fact affects a lot of people. For instance, prescription drugs. It plays a vital role in the US healthcare system, and many are dependent  on these drugs to help them live on with their lives. It’s enabling Americans to live longer, have a higher-quality experience, and overall become healthier . However, the value of these certain drugs is making people unable to afford them. For instance, hepatitis C antiviral is a drug that tends to be for a small population of patients, but the price per patient exceeds. This treatment can cause up to $100,000 per course of treatment. Also, the cost of new cancer drugs is growing dramatically, and the use of the drug is minimal, like only extending life for a few additional weeks. Statistics show that only twenty-four percent of people are having difficulty affording their medication and those who cannot afford medication tend to be low-income individuals who are near retirement age. To continue, those who rely on Medicare or a drug benefit plan, things have shifted as well for them. They are placing additional an federal budget, and states with higher drug costs for these programs either reduced certain services, or they increased health care eligibility requirements. For instance, if someone is a user of alcohol or of other drugs, Medicaid  will not cover their expenses, thus causing the individual to pay out of their own pockets. There are many more factors such as: lack of pricing transparency, regulatory barriers, shortage of comparative clinical data between the cost-effectiveness and value of a drug, health plan benefit structures, and, like mentioned before, the prices on brand-name drugs are extending. At the same time, lower-cost alternatives are out of the market.

To conclude, high drug prices are continually increasing, showing how the US has taken granted of the government-protected monopolies to drug manufacturers, and there’s a restriction of a price at a level not observed in other industrialized nations. All of these issues must be dealt with to achieve meaningful change. One of the most effective ways is for the government to reduce drug prices across the entire marketplace. In addition, the government should engage in international reference pricing to set prices at levels similar to those other countries. Nonetheless, the US government can help excessive drug prices by having some existing unusual and overly permissive policies. Besides the government, there are policies and proposals to give to patients to help access prescription medications such as the American College of Physicians (APA). They help identity studies, reports, surveys, and other sources to help the public with understanding the information on the pricing of prescription drugs, and other aspects of research, development, regulation, and marketing of prescription drugs. They also access prescription medications at the lowest cost possible and acknowledge the need for a robust pharmaceutical market that fosters investment and can develop new treatments Lastly, addressing the vital issue would provide patients with access to better treatments and improve the US. Long-term fiscal sustainability. Overall, we can see how medications are the most common health care intervention and have a significant benefit on the health of individuals and the population. But having unnecessarily high prices limits the ability for not only patients but the healthcare system as well.