How are Prescripton Drugs Priced and How Does This Concern Most Americans

Pricing of Prescription Drugs and how it Concerns most Americans
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Pricing of Prescription Drugs and its Concern to most Americans
Pharmaceutical companies have found themselves on the receiving end for improper pricing of prescription drugs. For instance, the decision by Turing Company to increase the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 created a public outcry prompting questions on how to solve the dilemma surrounding drug pricing. Research shows that there has been numerous fraudulent pricing of prescription drugs by pharmaceutical companies in the United States (Bothanwala & Bonthra, 2017). This calls for new strategies through which drug price increases can be solved. Therefore, with the numerous cases of an improper rise in drug prices by pharmaceutical companies in the United States, the government, regulatory bodies, and stakeholders must brainstorm decisions regarding drug pricing ethics. This will include critical decisions that might not gain acceptance by some pharmaceutical companies. However, these decisions have to be made for the good of the public.
Unscrupulous pricing of prescription drugs has raised a lot of concern from the U.S media and the public. Pharmaceutical companies have been blamed for raising the prices of medicines far much beyond the rate of inflation. This paper looks into the unethical pricing of prescription drugs in the United States (Leopold, Chambers & Wagner, 2016). Most companies have been blamed for increasing the price of drugs such as Daraprim, a drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, from $13.50 to $750. This represented a 5000 percent increase. In such instances, companies’ CEOs are accused of being at the center of massive price changes without providing valid reasons for doing so. Turing is one of the companies that have to take the center-stage upon which such accusations have been labeled (Jenkins, 2019). However, the overall price of drugs increases by 10 percent every year in the United States, which is 9 percent more than the rate of inflation. Such increases have made the public and other stakeholders to question the moral standards of U.S pharmaceutical companies. There is a need to stop this unethical behavior to enable Americans to access drugs at affordable rates.
Prescription drugs are an integral element of healthcare since patients depend on pills to remain healthy. However, the costs of prescription drugs have unfortunately increased exponentially in the past years, with the price of a single drug often surpassing an average American's annual income. In effect, this puts a heavy burden not only on employers but also on consumer premiums (Kesselheim, Avorn, & Sarpatwari, 2016). This is important to me because, as we are all older, I will eventually be paying triple if not quadruple the cost for my medication if I have to be on any. That will put a burden on me financially or possibly a burden on my family to have to help me pay for them.
The price of prescription drugs is a huge healthcare concern for many Americans. Trying to figure out a situation such as the high cost of prescription drugs would be a daunting task, but one t...