Prescription Drug Price Regulation: Argument That The Government Should Step In
The United States is a country that values life, and one of the wayswe express this is the premium we place on healthcare. However, statisticshave shown that the price of prescription drugs -- an important componentof healthcare -- have risen dramatically. The average prescription pricehas doubled in the last 10 years alone. This paper argues that the government should step in and regulate theprices of prescription drugs. It discusses three important rea
First, much of the mark-up for prescription drugs do not come fromresearch and development costs. Secondly, the government is in a position to negotiate lower priceswith drug companies. Instead, as author Patricia Barry states,"drugmakers spend billions reaching consumers and doctors" (Barry 2002). TheNational Institutes of Health funds research in many universities. sons whysuch regulation would be applicable only to the drug industry and would notinterfere with the country's free market economics. The high price of advertising and giving out free samples is then passed tothe consumers. It isthis taxpayer-funded research that forms the basis for many of the drugsdeveloped by the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, those who argue that drug price regulation would curtail freemarket economics should remember that the government publicly funds much ofthe research that goes into the development of drugs (Barry 2004). Thus, it is only fair that thegovernment should have a say in ensuring that these drugs are affordablefor the greater segment of its population. However, because of political lobbying,Congress has yet to take advantage of Medicaid and Medicare consumer baseand demand lower drug prices. Most other advanced industrialized countries aroundthe world currently do so.
Common topics in this essay:
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Patricia Barry,
Medicaid Medicare,
Institutes Health,
prescription drugs,
free market economics,
free market,
funds research,
market economics,
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