The Truth About the Drug Companies

` The Truth about the Drug Companies`

By Marcia Angell

Book Summary

Americans every day are subjected to a bombardment of advertising by various pharmaceutical companies . The advertisement is mixed in with different pitches for a drug showing beautiful people who are enjoying in the outdoors is the main message . Coming down to the essential and this is what is said : Prescription drugs are very costly but that shows how precious they are . The Research and Development costs are huge and companies need to cover them in some way . Research based companies

tend to turn out a stream of innovative medicines which enhance its quality averts more expensive medical care and extends life . People are the beneficiaries of the achievement of the American free enterprise system so we should all be grateful , and stop whining and pay for the drug . The industry says that you get what you pay for

Prescription drugs cost are very much high and rising fast . Americans spend around 200 billion a year on prescription drugs and the figure is growing at a rate of 12 a year . The fastest growing parts of a health care bill are Drugs which are also rising at a fast rate . The increase spending on drugs show that people are taking a lot more drugs than they used to . The prices of those drugs are frequently increased sometimes several times a year . Before its copyright ran out , the price of Schering Plough 's allergy pill , Claritin was increase about twelve times in a time span of five years for a percent

Poor people are not the only one having a problem paying for the prescription drugs . Health care is shrinking due to the struggling economy . Employers want workers to pay more for the cost themselves and many organizations are decreasing health benefits . As the costs of prescription drugs are increasing so fast , payers are eager to get out from under them and shifting the cost to the individuals . The end result is that more and more people pay a larger fraction of their drug bills out of their own pocket and that is way too costly

Many people cannot pay so much . They tend to trade of drugs against food or home heating . Some people take them less often than it is prescribed or share them with a family member . Some who are too embarrassed to admit that they cannot afford to pay leave the doctors office with prescription in their hand and not getting it filled . These patients go without the treatment needed and sometimes their doctors wrongly conclude that the drugs they were given haven 't worked prescribed by other which complicates the problem

Elderly people get hurt the most . When Medicare was ratified in 1965 people took less prescription drugs . No one thought it is important to include an out patient prescription drug advantage in the program Senior citizens could also buy the drugs which they needed . Around two thirds of the elderly people had additional insurance which...