In The Cost of Living, Stephen Hall discusses the astronomical prices of cancer drugs, from those that are proven to save lives, to those that may provide only another month and a half of decent life. In America we have this idea that you cannot put a price on life, and this is the idea that Hall is trying to throw out the window, in the most humanitarian way possible. For many types of cancers, we have been using the same base drug (first line treatment) for ten years or even longer. As companies find new drugs to fight the cancers, they hope that it will be the miracle drug that will eradicate the cancer, but it usually isn’t. When they reach this conclusion, instead of returning to the chalkboard and continuing to work to improve the drug, they put the drug on the market as is, and hope it will achieve something. Not only are they putting these drugs on the market but they put price tags on them that would bankrupt anyone without some sort of third party payer. The combination of all of these drugs make up what doctors …show more content…
The best way that was mentioned in the article is by creating competition. Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a cancer of the blood that about 5,000 Americans develop a year, according to Hall. To stay alive, patients must take a drug continuously for years, and the cost of staying alive ticks up quite rapidly. According to Hall, in 2001, when the first CML drugs came out, they cost around $30,000 a year, by 2012, the cost of the same drug had risen to $92,000 a year, more than a threefold increase. In South Korea they saw a way around this staggering price, competition. A South Korean company developed a CML drug that achieved the same thing as the American version and put the price at $21,500 a year, as a result competing CML drugs cost around $25,000 a year in South Korea, a fraction of the American price
But instead of finding ways to prevent or cure cancer they pour all their funding into treating cancer. Why would they want to get rid of this money machine? The “Cancer Machine” rakes in loads of cash from chemotherapy drugs, radiotherapy, diagnostic procedures, and surgeries. The typical cancer patient will spend around 50,000 dollars fighting the disease, but if the cancer industry allows a cure then their patient base goes away along with all their funding. It makes more sense for them to keep their patients alive, but sick and coming back for more. A crazy statistic points out that “two out of three cancer patients will be dead within five years after receiving all or part of the standard cancer treatment…” It makes you wonder as to how well is this “cancer treatment”
As we advance in our healthcare system and continue to find cure for the deadly diseases we are also faced with prescription drug prices rising much faster than they were a few years back. Drug prices are increasing at an unmaintainable rate without any sign of reduction. People who are heavily affected by this rise are mostly elderly citizens and also the poor of this country because they can barely afford these expenses. These people either have no money to pay for their copays or no health insurances at all.
In an article written by oncologist Lacie Glover, her concern was about the rising cost of cancer treatment, newly approved cancer drug costs of an average of $10,000 per month, and therapy costs averaging $30,000 per month. A patient typically pays 20-30% out of pocket for drugs. Therefore, the year’s average cost of new cancer medications would $26,000-$36,000, in addition to their health insurance premiums. If you wonder why insurance premiums are constantly on the rise, reflecting on the illnesses and costs to treat them.
When it comes to health care, cost is one of the biggest problems. Something needs to be done in order to make it possible for patients, families, and businesses to be able to afford health care. US does not always spend health care dollars in the most productive way. The cost of cancer treatments alone can cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the only way to pay for that is to raise the cost of the insurance to the patients. Cost is defined as the “price” of healthcare. The “price” or cost can come from various places such as, the physician’s bill, the cost of prescriptions, as well as what the employers pay to cover their employees. The cost of treatments, emergency room visits, medicines, the cost of newest technology and etc. is what is making our increase in cost rapidly. The rising costs leads to becoming a financial burden to families, even the ones that have health insurance, which can typically result in individuals not receiving the health services that they need.
Cancer is one of the leading cause of death in Australia and has a considerable social and economic influence on individuals, families and the community. Statistics shows that Australia has third highest cancer rate approximately 323 people being diagnosed per 100,000 in the world. (Begg & etal, 2007, pg.116). According to the recent disease study in burden of disease by WHO and Global Burden of disease study 2012, the findings of study showed 16% and 19% of the total disease burden in Australia (Moore & et al, 2007 pg.88)). Cancer is the sixth most expensive chronic disease due to the high expenditure of treatment and management compared to other chronic disease. It has been further described that approximately $4.5 billion were spent on cancer in 2008-09, accounting for 7% of total healthcare expenditure on chronic disease (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2013b, p.7) and 79% of total expenditure that spent on cancer patients who were admitted in hospital which is 20% more than the same expenditure that was spent on all
Anyone who has purchased prescription medications has probably wondered why they cost so much, and rightfully so. Medication prices in the United States have been on a steady increase for decades, however, prices have been drastically increasing as of recent. Pharmaceutical companies have tried to justify these price increases due to the demand, the high cost of research, and the high costs of development and approval. Notwithstanding, the extent to which the prices have increased is not justifiable. Americans should be against these high medication prices and take action because pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of our healthcare system in order to capitalize from the sick. In order shed some light on this issue, the magnitude, scope, and consequences of these prices must be examined.
Thesis: An examination of the case study New Protocol: How Drug’s Rebirth as Treatment for Cancer Fueled Price Rises relies heavily on a keen understanding of the social and economic implications of a capitalist system, and once taken into account it is clear that Celgene Corp. is justified in raising prices based on the business market philosophies asserted by
In a speech based in Kentucky in March, Donald Trump called drug prices “outrageous” and has intended plans to fix these issues during his presidential years. These high priced drugs are affecting the Americans, and especially our health-care system. “Not only are drug manufacturers launching products with high prices, they are routinely raising the prices of existing drugs — even decades-old drugs — by double-digit rates.” (High-Cost Drugs - AHIP) Unlike other countries, America has nobody telling these medicine-supplying companies how cheap, or how expensive their products may be. Increasingly, due to no price barrier, insurers are raising deductible prices to pass the prices along. After mainstream drug patents expire,
Background: Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world. Drug costs increased 12.6 percent last year, more than double the rise in overall medical costs. A new Kaiser Health poll shows that most Americans think prescription drug costs in this country are unreasonable, and that drug companies put profits before people.1 Take the example of albendazole which is broad spectrum anti-parasitic drug. In late 2010, the listed average wholesale price for albendazole was $5.92 per typical daily dose in the United States and less than $1 per typical daily dose overseas. By 2013, the listed typical daily dose price for USA market had increased to $119.58. Medicaid data show that spending on albendazole increased from less than $100,000 per year in 2008, when the average cost was $36.10 per prescription, to more than $7.5 million in 2013, when the average cost was $241.30 per prescription2. Albendazole is a very basic medicine but if we take the case of oncology medicines we are going to realize that oncology drugs have become synonymous with extremely high cost. The average cancer drug price for approximately 1 year of therapy was less than 10,000 per year in 2010 and had increased to $30,000 to $50,000 by 2005. In 2012, 12 of the 13 new drugs approved for cancer indications were priced above $100,000 per year of therapy. With typical out-of-pocket expenses of 20% to 30%, the financial burden would be $20,000 to 30,000 a year, nearly half of the average annual
This topic has struck close to home for me as I have had three very close relatives pass away with cancer in the last 5 years. I lost my closest cousin, my aunt and my mother to different types of cancers in the space of this past five years. Each one had not sought treatment until the illness was advanced due to multiple reasons including financial stability (vague symptoms, etc.). However, at the time that the illnesses were found and determined to be cancerous, each one of them had issues with affordability for treatment. I have found from my own personal experience that it is a sad fact that only the very wealthy can afford the more expensive and complicated treatments. The average person with the
The debate of cost verse care in the United States (U.S.) health care system is a conversation that has to continue. The stakeholders and policy makers should continuoulsy work to adjust cost based on a compassionate care model to bring the highest quality of care to U.S. patients. Continual adjustments are needed at all levels of our health care system to sustain care coordination. The practical health care model can guide the cost side while a compassionate care model has to be used to counter. Both sides can join to structure a functional cost effective healthcare system. The three most important aspects to understand when making healthcare decisions in the U.S. are economics, research, and ethics.
Known as one of the world’s most deadly diseases, second only to heart disease, cancer is a well known killer. Cancer is a disease mankind has been burdened with since the first documented records of human existence (“The History of Cancer”). Until the early 1900s, cancer was exclusively treated with surgery, which didn’t usually yield very effective results. Only recently have doctors reached a point where they can use drug therapies to suppress the disease. Relative to humans, cancer treatments are very new. Because the market for pharmaceutical drugs is so new, they lack many regulations and pricing guidelines. This allows these new companies to create a drug and place almost any price on it. The system in place can very easily be taken
Other opponents charge that the high prices of drugs aren’t examples of price gouging at all, but necessary increases for drug makers to recoup costs of research and development. Yet a Health Affairs study shows otherwise: enough money is made by US drug companies that they could cover research and development and still save “US patients, businesses, and taxpayers approximately $40 billion” per year, if they operated like the rest of the world.
Why focus on treatment instead of finding a cure? It is simple; there is in profit in finding a cure for cancer. Desperate and eager to live, the typical cancer patient spends about $50,000 fighting the disease. Chemotherapy drugs are among the most expensive of all treatments, many ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 for a one-month supply. If the cancer industry allows a cure, then their patient base goes away (Dr. Mercola, D. (2011, January 1). Cancer: Forbidden Cures | Natural Cancer Treatment. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/03/natural-cancer-treatment.aspx.) It makes more
Cancer. We all know someone who has suffered from it or has passed away because of it. Cancer now affects one in every three people, and is the second highest cause of death in the United States. For decades, the medical community has been on the hunt for a cure for cancer, and have been subjected to intense ridicule from the public because of a lack of progression toward a possible cure. In recent years, many scientists, doctors, researchers, and the general public have come to believe that the cure for cancer is being suppressed because of this lack of progress. Those who say it is suppressed claim that the drugs used to treat cancer actually cause cancer, making a patient sicker and sicker. As a result, the patients are forced to spend