The Cost of Prescription Drugs

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the cost of prescription drugs is rising in the United States at a rate that outstrips the ability of people without health insurance to pay for them. It looks at how medications absorb up to 30% of the income of many senior citizens, and over 40 million Americans have no health insurance at all. It proposes that those without prescription insurance coverage be combined into one identifiable group eligible for the price discounts negotiated by HMOs and other coverage providers, thus giving all Americans access to volume discount prices for medications.

From the Paper:

"Struggling with the cost of medications is not a new problem, and has been a topic of public debate since the 1950's when Senator Estes Kefauver led hearings regarding the pricing policies of the big pharmaceutical companies (Buell, 1999). He accused them of raising their prices unfairly. The industry replied that federal control on prices would devalue stocks and discourage research on new medications, just the claims made today. While there is no doubt that research done pharmaceutical companies has resulted in many new and valuable medications, research is not their only expense. Large amounts of money are spent on advertising, and in the United States, the high cost of medications puts them out of reach of millions who need them (Buell, 1999)."

More papers on The Cost of Prescription Drugs:

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• Persuasive Essay # 106088 : "Prescription Drugs for the Elderly"

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