Respond to this student post: An area of healthcare that is…

Question Answered step-by-step Respond to this student post: An area of healthcare that is… Respond to this student post:An area of healthcare that is particularly interesting is the cost of medication in the United States. Over the past few years, I have heard from several sources that there is a dramatic increase in the cost of medications which is making it difficult for those who suffer from treatable conditions to obtain treatment. I believe that this topic is important because medications have the ability to improve patient outcomes, shorten hospital stays, and reduce patient’s needs for other healthcare resources (Fischer & Avorn, 2006). The Department of Health estimated that in 2016 spent more than $460 billion on drugs, which makes up 16.7% of total healthcare spending (Emanuel, 2019). Drug prices also still continue to rise, according to the Health and Human Services, drug prices will continue to rise 6.3% each year over the next decade (Emanuel, 2019). One drug that we use almost every day in the hospital that many have trouble affording is insulin. “The most commonly used forms of analog insulin cost 10 times more in the United States than in any other developed country” (Rajkumar, 2020). A vial of insulin costs $332 in 2019 and patients require two to three vials per month (Rajkumar, 2020). There has been a 1000% price increase in insulin since 1999 (Rajkumar, 2020). Almost 25% of patients suffering from diabetes underuse insulin due to the cost (Emanuel, 2019).An article by Ezekiel Emanuel in The Atlantic, discusses the reasons pharmaceutical companies state for high drug prices and research to show discrepancies in these reasons (2019). Most drug companies stated that the reason for increasing drug prices is to cover the cost of research and development of new drugs (Emanuel, 2019). A study conducted by researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering found that the revenue from the top-selling drugs covered the price of research and then some (Emanuel, 2019). Specifically, the cost of all drug research costs about $80 billion a year and the revenue made from the top-selling medications gave drug companies $40 billion dollars in revenue (Emanuel, 2019). According to the former CEO of Pfizer, research costs do not determine drug prices (Emanuel, 2019). He states that drug prices are determined by “cost of business, competition, patent status, anticipated volume, and, most importantly, our estimate of the income generated by sales of the product” (Emanuel, 2019). Another former CEO of Merck stated that the cost of drugs is determined by the value they have in preventing and treating disease (Emanuel, 2019). Increased drug prices are a problem in this country as it means a large number of patients are unable to get their medication due to the fact that they cannot afford them. A study performed by the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that 13% of cancer patients did not buy approved chemotherapy drugs if their copay of $10 a month and 67% did not when their copay was $2000 or more (Doshi et al., 2018; Emanuel, 2019). Another problem is that high drug prices emphasize financial gains, not health gains (Emanuel, 2019). There are more than 600 cancer drugs being tested on humans and there are more than 600,000 cancer deaths in 2019 (Emanuel, 2019). While this seems promising, the drugs that are currently being researched only offer small health gains such as weeks added to life (Emanuel, 2019). The time added “can be valuable to individual families, too much investment in oncology means not enough in drugs for other illnesses whose treatments cannot be so highly-priced” (Emanuel, 2019). The article offers that antibiotics should have more research invested into them. It is estimated that millions of Americans are infected and 23,000 die each year from antibiotic-resistant infections (Emanuel, 2019). The article stated that even though antibiotic-resistant bacterias are an imminent threat, pharmaceutical companies do not research them because they are generally cheap (Emanuel, 2019). Compared to cancer drugs there are only 42 new antibiotics being researched in 2018 (Emanuel, 2019).It is important to discuss drug prices because it limits access to healthcare and can in the long run increase the cost of healthcare for patients. Patients should not have to weigh the cost of treating their diseases and their other responsibilities such as paying rent or putting food on the table (Fiscella et al., 2019). To help with the cost of their medications patients not picking up a prescription or skipping doses (Fiscella et al., 2019). Throughout this program, we have discussed adherence to medical treatment and how it is important to make care plans to promote patient adherence. High drug costs are the number one reason for medical non-adherence (Fiscella et al., 2019). I think it is important to address this issue when talking about the economics of healthcare delivery so that patients can afford their medications and improve their health.  ReferencesDoshi, J., Li, P., Hairong, Pettit, A., & Armstrong, K. (2018). Association of Patient Out-of-Pocket Costs With Prescription Abandonment and Delay in Fills of Novel Oral Anticancer Agents. Journal of Clinical Oncology. https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.2017.74.5091.Emanuel, E. J. (2019). Big pharma’s GO-TO defense of Soaring drug prices doesn’t add up. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/drug-prices-high-cost-research-and-development/585253/ (Links to an external site.).Fiscella, K., Venci, J., Sanders, M., Lanigan, A., & Fortuna, R. (2019). A practical approach to reducing patients’ prescription costs. Family Practice Management. https://www.aafp.org/fpm/2019/0500/p5.html.Fischer, M., & Avorn, J. (2006). Educating trainees about the cost of medications. Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association. https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/educating-trainees-about-cost-medications/2006-03#:~:text=In%20some%20instances%2C%20an%20expensive,the%20clinical%20benefit%20they%20offer (Links to an external site.).Rajkumar, V. (2020). The High Cost of Insulin in the United States: An Urgent Call to Action. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(19)31008-0/fulltext. Health Science Science Nursing NURS 407 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)