The rise in cost of prescription drugs affects all sectors of the health care industry, including private insurers, public programs, and patients. Spending on prescription drugs continues to be an important health care concern, particularly in light of rising pharmaceutical costs and the aging population. Prescription drugs have grown to become an essential component of health care. For millions of Americans, prescription drugs are necessary to their health and ability to function in society. While prescriptions are a relatively small portion of overall health spending, they are a main reason for certain health spending trends, growing almost twice as fast all other health services in recent years. Prescription costs can be the costliest expense in your budget, especially if you are on a fixed income. The wealthy can easily afford their medications, but for an increasing population such as the elderly, choosing among purchasing medication, paying bills, or buying food is a real concern. Rising prescription drug prices are driving nearly two million Americans to cross international borders to seek necessary medications. Some are physically venturing into Canada and Mexico for the pharmaceuticals, while others are turning to mail-order pharmacies via the Internet. Purchasing prescriptions from Canada and Mexico is markedly less expensive than buying them at your local pharmacy or from a U.S. online pharmacy; however, the question is why? The why is what economists call price discrimination. It means charging different prices to different buyers of the same product. Price discrimination works in the drug industry because drugs are very expensive to develop, but inexpensive to manufacture. American consumers are exhauste... ... middle of paper ... ...rm debate. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have lobbied against legislation to allow drugs from other nations into the United States. Prescription prices in America have increased beyond affordability and are hindering the health of the nation. Americans are forced to bear the burden of research costs and are being turned into deviants and white-collar criminals. By ridding the monopoly of the pharmaceutical companies and evening the prescription prices throughout the globe, the drastic increase in prescription prices can be prevented. Even just passing legislation that in fact allows Americans to decide their own fate when it comes to their prescription medications, would have a drastic impact on pharmaceutical pricing. After all isn't it the point of the government to stand up for its citizens and care more for them, not its business.
Abramsons points are well taken, and it truly is a shame that the medical industry has become a business. In my opinion, if the pharmaceutical industry was taken out of the hands of the capitalist marketplace and given the to the government, it would become less of a business. Prescription drugs are not ordinary consumer goods; they are products that can ultimately save lives. If a money-oriented company controls these products, it is inevitable selling the drug would become a greater priority than actually creating a beneficial drug. Which as a result, will to the creation many well-marketed yet ineffective
The United States of America accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, yet as a nation, we devour over 50% of the world’s pharmaceutical medication and around 80% of the world’s prescription narcotics (American Addict). The increasing demand for prescription medication in America has evoked a national health crisis in which the government and big business benefit at the expense of the American public.
The social impact of the Out of Pocket costs for medications may lead to non-compliance.
Although writing a prescription may be an easy way to put a bandaid on a problem, people tend to forget that medication can’t be responsible for curing our nation. Slowly we are becoming a country where pills are handed out like candy, causing a severe series of negative effects and downfalls. Ray Bradbury, the author of the award winning novel Fahrenheit 451, is definitely in agreement. In 1951, when the novel was written, Bradbury was able to make the prediction that the innocent use of medication would soon turn into an extreme drug epidemic, and unfortunately he wasn’t wrong. The overuse of drugs in the United States, such as mental illness medication
Third is performing reckonable accident errors that have been impaired on patients whereas the amount also was listed at $1.7 Million from 2008.Fourth the U.S. reckless spends about 100-200 billion a year in curing uninsured patients. Fifth, the most commonly talked about drug of all is tobacco, which amounts to about 96 billion. Healthcare not only does give patients the importance of everything but we also have technology along with so many life-enhancing benefits is ridiculously high and is way over the line. Which is why so many of our medical learners are not being trained enough to understand the importance of procuring and delivering prescription drugs that have cost about 1.3 billion dollars. The Question we should ask ourselves this how is it going to look when those are in need of a serious medical issue of having what’s required of them to take in order to ease their pain.
Prescription drug prices rose three times faster than inflation in the decade between 1981 and 1991, making the pharmaceutical industry the nation's most profitable business. Prescription drugs even exceeded the rapidly rising inflation rate for all other medical services. They now represent at least 10% of all the medical costs in the United States.1
Almost everybody on Long Island, and probably all around the world, has been prescribed a drug by a doctor before— whether it was to knock out a nasty virus, or relieve pain post injury or surgery. However, what many people don’t realize is that these drugs can have highly addictive qualities, and more and more people are becoming hooked, specifically teenagers. But when does harmlessly taking a prescription drug to alleviate pain take the turn into the downward spiral of abuse? The answer to that question would be when the user begins taking the drug for the “high” or good feelings brought along with it—certainly not what it was prescribed for (1). The amount of teens that abuse prescription medications has been rapidly increasing in recent
From 1970 to 1998, the inflation-adjusted revenue of major pharmaceutical companies more than quadrupled to $81 billion, 24 percent of that from drugs affecting the central nervous system and sense organs. Sales of herbal medicines now exceed $4 billion a year. Meanwhile the war on Other drugs escalated dramatically. Since 1970 the federal antidrug budget has risen 3,700 percent and now exceeds $17 billion. More than one and half million people are arrested on drug charges each year, and 400,000 are now in prison. These numbers are just a window into an obvious truth: We take more drugs and reward those who supply them. We punish more people for taking drugs and especially punish those who supply them. On the surface, there is no conflict...The drug wars and the drug boom are interrelated, of the same body. The hostility and veneration, the punishment and profits, these come from the same beliefs and the same mistakes.
Once the patient is stable and can have a CT scan done, this is the best diagnostic test to determine craniocerebral trauma. Other diagnostic studies that may be done to indicate a head injury include an MRI, PET, transcranial Doppler studies, and a cervical spine x-ray. A Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) may be used to test neurologic function. The worst score a patient can receive is a 3, with the best being a 15. A score of 8 means the person needs to be intubated. This is important to monitor because patient’s can deteriorate very quickly. Due to the magnitude of the patient’s, vital signs should be checked at least every 15 minutes. The head of the bed should be raised to 30 degrees because of the presence of possible cerebral spinal fluid from her nose. This fluid should be checked for the presence of glucose (Halo’s sign) to confirm that it is in fact cerebral spinal fluid. Intracranial pressure should be monitored using ventriculostomy, which is when a catheter is inserted into the lateral ventricle to remove cerebral spinal fluid. Along with this, supplemental oxygen should be administered to the patient via a non-rebreather mask. It is also important to initiate at least two large bore IV’s to maintain access incase the patient is to receive any medication or
Prescription drug abuse has become a major epidemic across the globe, shattering and affecting many lives of young teenagers. Many people think that prescription drugs are safer and less addictive than “street drugs.” After all, these are drugs that moms, dads, and even kids brothers and sisters use. The dangers are not easily seen, but the future of our youth will soon be in severe danger if the problem is not addressed,it will continue to get worse if action is not taken soon. Prescription drugs are only supposed to be consumed by patients who have been examined and have a medical report by a professional, more and more teens are turning to the family’s medicine cabinet to “get high” but what they are actually doing is severely harming themselves, kids today are turning away from the street drugs and abusing the “prescribed” drugs that are that are at their very own home.
There are three issues when it comes to the health care cost rising. The first is the rising cost in prescription drugs. The second area of rising cost is the increased technologies when it comes to the medical industry. The third problem is the aging population. Prescription drugs are the area of the fastest growing health care expense, and it is projected to grow at 20 to 30 percent each year over the next several years. There are many newer, more expensive drugs on the market, and the use of these prescriptions is exploding. In addition, with so much television advertising, many consumers ask their doctors for expensive, brand name drugs when there may actually be a generic drug that works just as well.
The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such. Not to mention the fact that the doctors who prescribe these opioids often tend to misuse them as well. Abusing these prescribed drugs can “destroy dreams and abort great destinies," and end the possibility of the abuser to have a positive impact in the community.
Tweet 1:Awareness Prescription drugs is a big problem! Adolescent and adolescent adults are using prescription drugs to deal with stress. However, they are NOT safe! Even though they can be prescribed to people, does NOT mean anyone can take it. Help stop prescription drug abuse / overdose.
Imagine you were a lower class family with little to no income. Someone in your family is in need of a prescription. How do you pay for it? Prescription drugs are a big issue today in general. People misuse them and sell them to people other than the person they were prescribed to. But what about people who actually need them and can't pay for them? Some people may argue that depending on the injury, they should be free. But free isn't exactly the ideal choice either, we can't have companies just giving away free medicine. People can also lie about their symptoms to get more medication, which they wouldn't need or they could sell to other people for money. Over the years the price of the medications have increased a lot. In 12 months they have gone up nearly 14% In fact, pharmacies used to get a bottle of 100 pills for around $300, which is where the large price sprouted from, but now they get them anywhere between $1-$10, and overprice them for their profit.
Being a pharmacist means entering into a diverse yet extremely rewarding field of work. Pharmacists are heavily involved in the preparation and dispensing of medicinal drugs. However, some pharmacists are involved in the actual research and development for the pharmaceutical manufacturers. Pharmacists fall into the Health Science career cluster. As of right now, the demand for pharmacists is going up at a steady rate due to the rapid expansion of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries (Job Outlook for Pharmacists). Pharmacists are generally stationed in one location for the duration of their work. Unless of course a pharmacist is leaving to study more on efficient ways to work, info on new drugs, etc.. Pharmacists work year round doing virtually the same thing they started doing. Give or take a few new or old drugs being introduced there is not significant amounts of change that happens in this occupation regarding time such as peak times. Although, it could be argued that during some seasons there is more of a demand for prescription drugs to be given out because it might be a “sick season”. Therefore, this would cause a “peak” period. Most pharmacists generally work 40 hours a week. As with all professions though there are pharmacists, around 12%, that work more than 50 hours per week (Pharmacists - What They Do). Being a pharmacist requires a fairly decent amount of well tuned motor skills. This is simply because a pharmacist with shaky hands can overprescribe someone due to maybe giving more than the intended amount. The starting salary for a Pharmacist is between $81,000-$113,000 a year (Job Outlook for Pharmacists). Pharmacists are considered to have one of the most well paid health care jobs in the industry. They ca...