The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion

The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion

Healthcare is an important aspect of the lives of every individual. With the increase in the number of people suffering from chronic illnesses and other lifestyle-related diseases, the use of prescription drugs has become an important part of these individuals. People also take prescription drugs for other acute illnesses which may be unrelated to lifestyle. Therefore, the cost of prescription drugs is a major factor that needs to be addressed, especially for people who are on multidrug therapy. Affordability of these drugs is a major issue for those who take four or more of the prescription medicines (Hamel, et al., 2022). A study conducted to determine the affordability of prescription drugs in the United States revealed that most adults believed the cost of prescription drugs was unreasonable (Hamel, et al., 2022)The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion. The purpose of this paper is to examine the question of prescription drug affordability and discuss some ways that can be used to reduce their costs to ensure they are affordable to the patients.

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The Prescription Drug Affordability Question

            The high cost of healthcare is a burden to a majority of patients, their families, and society as a whole. For people with chronic illnesses, this high cost has made them particularly vulnerable because of their condition and the process of treatment may render them unable to work resulting in the loss of employment. This may result in financial debt and asset depletion as they try to pay for their treatment which may lead to bankruptcy (National Library of Medicine, 2018)The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion. The United States’ expenditure on prescription drugs is about 17 percent of the total personal healthcare services cost (Kesselheim, et. al., 2016). Patients taking multiple prescriptions, especially those with low income and are uninsured find it very difficult to purchase these prescription medications, and this affects the quality of their health negatively.  As a result, the general public considers lowering the cost of prescription drugs as one of the priority issues that the government has to deal with.

Negative effects on healthcare quality

The increasingly high costs of prescription drugs provide a threat to healthcare budgets, limiting the funding being availed to other areas of public importance (Rajkumar, 2020). Out-of-pocket payment is therefore difficult to maintain and this threatens the quality of healthcare that patients receive. Patients who are unable to pay for these drugs may opt not to purchase them after all and this may result in increased mortality rates. A high level of demand for the medications may make the patients deplete their assets in an attempt to purchase the drugs leading to increased poverty levels. Some may not effectively complete an antibiotic dose which may result in the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of infections.

The most affected population

The African American community is the most affected by an increase in prescription drug prices (Fadeyi-Jones, et al., 2020). This is because the community is more likely to suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, COVID – 19, and chronic pain among other chronic illnesses. This likelihood is associated with their economic, social, and political conditions. In comparison to the white community, Black Americans are almost twice as likely to be uninsured and with lower incomes (Fadeyi-Jones, et al., 2020)The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion. As a result, their life expectancy is almost five years less than that of their white counterparts. The effect of this is a perpetuation of systemic racism in kind.

Some potential causes of the high cost of prescription drugs

Some of the most common causes of the high cost of prescriptions include monopoly whereby there are no new alternatives to the existing drugs drug resulting in a lack of competition. The process of drug development is also long and expensive, taking about twelve years for a drug to move from the stages of preclinical testing to final approval. The cost of treatment may also be high due to the seriousness of the disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion. For instance, the treatment of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria requires a more complex treatment process, and the drugs used in this process are quite expensive in comparison to the treatment for other illnesses.

According to the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), there has been a massive increase in the prices of generic drugs which were previously of low cost, drugs that are used in the treatment of serious illnesses but are not protected by the Orphan Drug Act, and drugs that are used in the treatment of some newer infections (American Academy of Neurology, 2022). Therefore, action needs to be taken to ensure the affordability of medications to patients using simple, affordable, and transparent solutions.

Position of Statements of National Associations

The American Hospital Association (AHA) senate, in a statement addressing the inflation of prescription drug prices, suggested some policy recommendations to Congress to ensure regulation of prices of prescription drugs (American Hospital Association, 2022)The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion. Among the recommendations was the need to increase competition and innovation, increase the transparency in the pricing of the drugs, improve medication access through inflation-based rebates for Medicare drugs among others, provide better alignment incentives by testing the changes to the Part D reinsurance program which is federally funded, and protect the 340B drug pricing program. The recommendations above are meant to provide some checks and balances on the costs of prescription drugs in hospital facilities to ensure their affordability.

Potential stakeholders who may provide support to the health policy brief

            The affordability of prescription drugs is a major issue in the healthcare system that should be addressed by different stakeholders who take part in the manufacture and consumption of these drugs, either directly or indirectly. The stakeholders who can provide support to this health policy include patients, the general public, physicians, nurses, insurance companies, and the government. Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and supply drugs receive their remuneration through insurance companies or a government drug benefit plan (Institute of Clinical Bioethics, 20222)The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion. The insurance companies can lobby for the rights of patients under their care by negotiating for lower costs of prescription medications.

Physicians and nurses, especially advanced practice nurses also play a major role in patient care because they are the ones responsible for providing prescriptions for medications. Nurses act as patient advocates and can lobby for a reduction in the costs of medications to ensure that patients can afford them. This will facilitate quality healthcare and ensure optimum healthcare for patients. At the same time, patients are stakeholders in this case because they are the direct consumers of prescription drugs. The general public may also fall in this category because they are the ones who consume the medications in case they fall ill. The government may also support this health policy because they need to ensure that healthcare is affordable to all its citizens. Ensuring the affordability of prescription drugs is one way of ensuring equity in healthcare.

Bill S. 1898. Affordable Medications Act

            This bill was introduced to the United States Senate on the twenty-seventh of May 2021 by Senator Tina Smith to tackle the increasing cost of prescription drugs. The bill provides an expansion requirement for financial reporting by drug manufacturers (Congress.gov, 2022). It also provides for civil penalties for those manufacturers who do not comply with the reporting requirement. In the bill, an additional reporting requirement is also added for some non-profit patient assistance programs. The bill provides a requirement for healthcare insurance agencies such as the Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate the drug prices for some prescription drugs under their cover. A recommendation of penalties is also provided to pharmaceutical companies who provide unwarranted spikes in prescription drug prices.

In simpler words, the bill seeks to increase transparency by ensuring that pharmaceutical companies are accountable for setting up high prices for prescription drugs, increasing affordability by giving Medicare the chance to use their purchasing power in negotiating drug prices, and allowing safe importation of drugs from other countries like Canada at a cheaper price. An innovation opportunity is also provided through the creation of an Innovative Incentive fund for new antibiotics and providing funding publicly for clinical trials and the development of new drugs. Lastly, the bill seeks to reduce drug monopolies so that more generic competition can be introduced into the market The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion.

The healthcare policy plan

One of the plans for this policy brief is to provide an avenue for public participation in providing prices for drugs with the objective of ensuring transparency in the pricing of prescription drugs by pharmaceutical companies. Since it is the general public who consumes the pharmaceutical products manufactured by the pharmaceutical companies, public involvement needs to be undertaken to ensure that people are comfortable with drug prices to enhance uptake and improve the quality of healthcare. In addition, the involvement of Medicaid in the negotiation of drug prices will also reduce the chances of pharmaceutical companies charging exorbitant prices for prescription drugs. Those who are not covered by Medicaid should be enrolled in a prescription savings program which will increase their ability to purchase the already subsidized drugs (Rx Assist, 2022). This program offers members a savings card which they present at their prescription drugs collection points and drugs are offered at a far much-discounted price increasing affordability.

The government should also ensure a reduction in the monopoly of pharmaceutical companies providing the drugs. The objective of this plan is to increase competition in the market which will force the pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices in an attempt to win customers. This will see a remarkable reduction in drug costs making it affordable to a majority of the population. A favorable environment should be created for the importation of cheaper drugs from other approved pharmaceutical companies in other countries such as Canada to reduce the monopoly.

Conclusion

The affordability of prescription drugs is a major issue in the United States, affecting a large number of the public population. A good number of United States citizens still have the dilemma of choosing between purchasing prescription drugs and meeting other basic needs. Reducing the costs of prescription drugs to ensure affordability will increase the quality of health care throughout the United States and reduce the socioeconomic inequalities relating to healthcare. This will in turn improve public health and healthcare outcomes for patients.

References

American Academy of Neurology (AAN). (2022). AAN position: Prescription drug prices. Retrieved from https://www.aan.com/advocacy/prescription-drug-prices-position-statement

American Hospital Association (AHA). (2022). AHA Senate statement: “Prescription drug price inflation: An urgent need to lower drug prices in Medicare.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/threats-report/2019-ar-threats-report-508.pdf

Congress.gov. (2022). S.1898- Affordable medications act: 117^th Congress (2021-2022). Retrieved from https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1898#:~:text=The%20bill%20establishes%20an%20excise,the%20importation%20of%20prescription%20drugs.

Fadeyi-Jones, T., Hurley, C., Johnson-Cusack, G., LaRoche, C., Mitchell, D., & Solomon-Mitchell, N. (2020). High prescription drug prices perpetuate systemic racism. We can change it. Retrieved from https://patientsforaffordabledrugsnow.org/2020/12/14/drug-pricing-systemic-racism/

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Hamel, L., Lopes, L., Kirzinger, A., Sparks, G., Kearney, A., Stokes, M., & Brodie, M. (2022). Public opinion on prescription drugs and their prices. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/health-costs/poll-finding/public-opinion-on-prescription-drugs-and-their-prices/#:~:text=Affordability%20is%20a%20bigger%20issue,three%20or%20fewer%20prescription%20medications.

Institute of Clinical Bioethics. (2022). Healthcare Reform. Duties and responsibilities of the stakeholders. Retrieved from https://sites.sju.edu/icb/health-care-reform-duties-and-responsibilities-of-the-stakeholders/

Kesselheim, A. S., Avorn, J., & Sarpatwari, A. (2016). The high cost of prescription drugs in the United States: origins and prospects for reform. Jama, 316(8), 858-871.

National Library of Medicine. (2018). Making medicines affordable. A national imperative. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493099/

Rx Assist. (2022). About the prescriptions savings program. Retrieved from https://www.rxassist.org/patients/discountcards

Vincent Rajkumar, S. (2020). The high cost of prescription drugs: causes and solutions. Blood cancer journal, 10(6), 1-5.The Prescription Drug Affordability Discussion

The purpose of this assignment is to draft a health policy brief for stakeholders and community members. The specific policy this assignment is to be about is prescription drug affordability impacting populations and/or communities in the United States that has legislative and policy implications at the state and/or national level. The assignment is not about identifying a policy or procedure at your place of employment, but rather identifying a systematic healthcare concern that has legislative and policy implications at least at the state level. Prior to beginning to work on this project, please view the 18:36 minute video developed by the Women’s and Children’s Health Policy Center titled, The Art and Craft of Policy Briefs: Translating Science and Engaging Stakeholders, which will provide you with an understanding on the development of a policy brief.

Submission Parameters:

For the first part of this three-paper assignment, please use the following guidelines and criteria. Also, please refer to the rubric for point allocation and assignment expectations. The expected length of the paper is 6 pages, which does not include the cover page and reference page(s).

1. Introduction (including purpose statement)
2. the healthcare issue being discussed is prescription drug affordability

discuss the above issue that has state and/or national legislative implications

Describe the healthcare issue with the support of research studies, bills that have been introduced to the legislature, national association position statements, and reliable electronic health-related sources (i.e. Institute of Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Include information on the demographic impacted by the issue, adverse health/clinical outcomes, and prevalence.

III.  Identify potential stakeholders and/or constituents who may support your health policy brief. For example, you may address the individuals, communities, and/or populations who may be impacted by the issue.

 

1. Identify at least one specific piece of legislation (bill) that is pending on your healthcare issue. Specifically united states Senate bill S.1898 – Affordable Medications Act. Make sure that you provide in-text citations and reference the document.

 

1. Draft a plan for your Health Policy Brief, which may capitalize from an existing health campaign and/or proposed bill. Include at least two objectives that you hope to achieve. The plan should seek to create a new policy or change an existing policy at the state and/or national level. The plan should be described in no more than 2 paragraphs.

 

1. Conclusion

 

 

 

In regards to APA format, please use the following as a guide:

 

Include a cover page and running head (this is not part of the 6 page limit)

Include transitions in your paper (i.e. headings or subheadings)

Use in-text references throughout the paper

Use double space, 12 point Times New Roman font

Apply appropriate spelling, grammar, and organization

Include a reference list (this is not part of the 5-6 page limit)

Attempt to use primary sources only. That said, you may cite reliable electronic sources (i.e. NCSBN, AANP)