New Drugs Bring Health, But at What Cost?
The wonder drugs of present times help to keep pain at
bay and cholesterol
levels low. They also guarantee good mood, strong sexual
prowess and lots of other benefits.
Unfortunately, many Amercicans are feeling the pain in their
pocketbooks, instead of general relief as the costs of
prescription drug reported to be increasing at twice the factor
of inflation.
"These drugs do help a lot of people - that's why it's such a
shame that they are so expensive and out of reach for so many,"
stated Dee Mahan who is a deputy director of health policy at
Families USA from Washington, D.C., a nonprofit consumer
organization that has fought for lower prices of drug.
Mahan said: "Prices are much lower in other countries. You can't
help but feel as an American that you're getting gouged with the
prices here."
A spokesman for the industry group PhRMA (Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America), Jeff Trewhitt, had a
diefferent opinion.
"The critics have done a good job of distorting the cost
record," Trewhitt said. "The fact is, prescription drugs
(including generics) account for about 11 percent of each
health-care dollar, with hospitals, doctors, surgeries, the cost
of medical equipment and other expenses accounting for the
remaining 89 cents."
More importantly, Trewhitt claimed, the disease-management
powers of a large number of these drugs - such as antidepressant
SSRIs or cholesterol-lowering statins - are actually saving
"billions of dollars" of the health-care system and the
consumers as they preclude expensive and complicated care such
as surgery and hospitalizations.
"For example, the average cost of an anti-ulcer drug is about
$900 a year. When a patient takes the medicine and avoids the
surgery, he avoids paying an average of $28,000 for the
operation. The average cost of a heart disease drug is $1,200 a
year, compared to an average of about $42,000 for coronary
artery bypass surgery." - Trewhitt emphasized.
Mahan stated she doesn't deny either of Trewhitt's points,
despite the fact that she is sure the cost of prescription drugs
in health-care spending is "a little higher" than the 11 percent
he mentioned.
In her opinion lots of expensive new medications save lives and
keep patients from having to experience even much more expensive
interventions.
"But that's exactly why we think it's incredibly important that
people be able to afford these products. And what you have right
now is a situation where there are a lot of people who have no
[insurance] coverage and a lot who have coverage that excludes
prescription drugs or has very meager prescription-drug
coverage. So the cost of these products hits people very hard."
- Mahan said.
A few facts: Due to AARP's last "Rx Watchdog Report," published
in August, prices of 195 top brand-name medications increased by
6.6 percent from the spring of 2004 to the spring of 2005 - more
than double the 3 percent yearly factor of inflation.
AARP calculates that the average older American, who takes three
prescription
medications, pays for the drugs about $866 more than five
years ago.
When the report was released, Ken Johnson, PhRMA's senior vice
president stated that the AARP used "fuzzy math in reaching its
flawed conclusions."
Trewhitt said: "Today's pharmaceutical price increases, which
are at near decade-low levels, are in line with those of other
health-care services, which aren't as cost-effective."
He is sure that the true problem is in the growing groups of
uninsured people in America: "Today, about 45 million Americans
lack adequate insurance or any insurance. They often pay cash on
the barrelhead for medicines at retail pharmacies and they don't
have anyone negotiating good discounts on their behalf."
In response, Mahan agreed and at the same time disagreed again:
"We certainly do have too many people without coverage - I'm not
arguing with him on that one"- said. But she added that health plans cut out prescription-drug coverage
accurately because prices have increased very quickly to a high
level.
Mahan's group fight for price rollback as well as lobby for some
kind of federal controls of the prices as occur in Canada and
Europe. Industry representatives try to defend by saying that
the controls could strike research and development, but Mahan
doesn't believe it.
"We've looked at profits and spending patterns in pharmaceutical
companies and what you see consistently is that R&D is well
overshadowed by spending on marketing, advertising and
administration," she noticed. "It's also well overshadowed by
profits."
Price controls in the USA appear to be very distant. According
Trewhitt and Mahan people should be careful with shopping and
use all the available discounts as well as comparison shopping.
In January, for those in age of over 65, the expected Medicare
drug benefit is to be kick off.
Both sides agree to a point that a great deal of the highly
popular, expensive prescription
drugs are able to improve people's lives.
Mahan said: "I spend a lot of my time at my work trying to get
policy changes that would help people access affordable drugs.
If I didn't think the drugs were good and worth it, I'd be doing
something else."