In my previous post I talked about the importance of the reduction in the prices of prescribed drugs, from the perspective of a nurse who wants the best for their patients. Today I would like to make the same from the patient’s perspective. As a patient with a chronic condition as can be chronic heart failure, I have been negatively impacted by the high and, sometimes, prohibitive prices of the prescribed medication. Even with medical insurance, one of the medications that were prescribed to me had a price of 380 USD for three months treatment, while the price rises to 290 USD per month without insurance. Thinking like a patient this is a high price to pay month by month for the therapy of a chronic disease, actually it make me lack for one of the medications I need just for not been able to afford it. This is a case that maybe sounds alike for many other patients since the prices rises according the demand, the actual need for the medication (Hammond, Chiu, Painter & Meena, 2018). Imagine, this is a price for a cardiac medication, HIV and Cancer medication increase their value exponentially to the quality of life they can offer (Lyles, 2017), a regular treatment for any of these diseases can easily reach the 30,000 USD per month.
I do understand that pharmaceutical companies create medications that are meant to save lives and/or increase the quality of life of the patients, and the process for the development, test and approval of such drugs takes a long time, even years. Also is true that such process involve a high amount of resources and money that pharmaceutical companies need to reimburse (Kouvelis, Yixuan & Nan, 2018). As a consumer I do understand that the prices are mainly based on demand, thus medication with higher demand will have higher prices. The thing is that added to this point is the competing between the pharmaceutical companies in the United States and around the world, which cause more irregularities in the prices of the medications, brand or generic (Kouvelis, Yixuan & Nan, 2018). Several companies produce drugs under a generic name, which means that the medication will have a substantial reduction in the price from the brand name medication, which is good for patients like me. Unfortunately many of the generic drugs are discontinued or not even legal in the United States (Lyles, 2017), so the pharmaceutical companies keep building profit from the disease and the suffering of our population. In my opinion, the Government should adopt measures that benefit both, those companies and the population, since one of the main reasons of the ridiculous cost of the healthcare in United States is the price of the prescribed medication (Hammond, Chiu, Painter & Meena, 2018). Until resolve, millions of patients like me are at risk to lose their wellness, even their life because of the insane prices of the prescribed drugs.
Sincerely
Cesar Almanza
Reference:
Hammond, D. A..; Chiu, T.; Painter, J. T. & Meena, N. (2018). Nonpharmacist health care providers’ knowledge of and opinions regarding medication costs in critically ill patients. Hospital Pharmacy, 53 (3), doi: http://dx.doi.org.prx-keiser.lirn.net/10.1177/0018578717739005
Kouvelis, P.; Yixuan, X. & Nan Y. (2018). Drug pricing for competing pharmaceutical manufacturers distributing through a common PBM. Production & Operations Management, 27 (8), doi: 10.1111/poms.12867
Lyles, A. (2017). Pharmacy benefit management companies: Do they create value in the U.S. healthcare system? PharmacoEconomics, 35 (5), doi: 10.1007/s40273-017-0489-1
