prescriptiondrugs.procon.orgPrescription Drug Costs Pros and Cons - 8 Arguments For and Against

More IssuesFAQs Teachers’ Corner Prescription Drug Ads Should the US Government Regulate Prescription Drug Prices? Last updated on: 6/6/2022 | Author: ProCon.org With 79% of Americans saying prescription drug costs are unreasonable,” and 70% reporting lowering prescription drug costs as their highest healthcare priority, the popular prescription drug debate is not whether drug costs should be reduced but how to reduce prescription drug costs. One consideration is whether the United States federal government should regulate prescription drug prices. [ 1 ] A prescription drug is a medication that may only be obtained with a medical professional’s recommendation and authorization. In some US states, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, clinical psychologists, and other medical professionals are permitted to write prescriptions in addition to doctors. Prescription drugs are generally divided into two categories: brand-name drugs and generic drugs . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] In the United States, drug companies (also called pharmaceutical companies ) set prescription drug prices, which are largely unregulated by the US federal government. Some drug companies will be familiar due to their names being attached to COVID-19 vaccines or other common products: Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, for example. Others may not be household names but command large portions of the market nonetheless: Swiss companies Roche and Novartis, to name two. [ 4 ] Read more background… Pro & Con Arguments Pro 1 High drug costs can force people to choose between life-saving drugs and other essentials. 24% of people taking prescription drugs reported difficulty affording the drugs, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll. 58% of people whose drugs cost more than $100 a month, 49% of people in fair or poor health, 35% of those with annual incomes of less than $40,000, and 35% of those taking four or more drugs monthly all reported affordability issues. Additionally, 30% of people aged 50 to 64 reported cost issues because they generally take more drugs than younger people but are not old enough to qualify for Medicare drug benefits. [ 15 ] Tori Marsh, Director of Research at GoodRx, explained some of the consequences of having to buy expensive prescription drugs: In 2020, 20.7% of people reported taking on debt or declaring bankruptcy due to the cost of their prescription medications. Borrowing from friends or family was the most common financial action (16.8%), followed by getting loans (5.0%), taking out another mortgage (1.2%), and filing for bankruptcy (1.0%).” [ 16 ] Because of high drug costs, 29% of adults surveyed in the KFF poll said they did not take their medication(s) as prescribed, 19% did not fill a prescription, 18% took an over-the-counter (OTC) drug instead, and 12% cut pills in half orPrescription Drug Costs – Pros & Cons Pro & Con Quotes History of Prescription Drug Costs Did You Know? FDA-Approved Prescription Drugs Later Pulled from the Market by the FDA International Prescription Drug Costs Drugs Switched from Prescription to Over-the-Counter Status Footnotes Cite This Page Site Map All Issues / Topics Topics A-Z New Topics Artificial Intelligence Private Prisons Space Colonization Most Popular Homework Social Media Death Penalty School Uniforms Video Games Animal Testing Gun Control Zoos Banned BooksFAQs Teachers’ Corner Cite This Page × ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): APA Chicago MLA Turabian APA (7th ed.): ProCon.org. (2022, June 6). Prescription Drug Ads. ProCon.org. https://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org [Editor’s Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries.] Chicago (17th ed.): ProCon.org, "Prescription Drug Ads," ProCon.org . last modified June 6, 2022. https://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org/. MLA (9th ed.): ProCon.org, "Prescription Drug Ads." ProCon.org . 6 June 2022, prescriptiondrugs.procon.org [Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries.] Turabian (9th ed.): ProCon.org. "Prescription Drug Ads." ProCon.org. Last modified on June 6, 2022. Accessed April 5, 2024....