The Pros And Cons Of Prescription Drug Advertising

A percentage of the population doesn’t consider prescription drugs very dangerous because they are prescribed by doctors. Unfortunately, that's true and it is very concerning to other people who are aware of the problem. We as a community must help each other and inform each other about the effects prescription drugs have. These types of drugs develop addicts which can be treated effectively depending the type of drug they took. There are two main treatments behavioral treatment and medications.

Prescription drug abuse in the United States has officially been declared an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Prescription Drug Abuse Statistics, 2013). Due to the increase of prescription drug abuse, prescription narcotics have been considered the new “gateway” drug to heroin addiction. The prescription drug epidemic is being fueled by prescribers and physicians that are not utilizing proper guidelines when prescribing narcotics to patients. A major concern is that doctors are shying away from utilizing therapy and counseling, which could alleviate the use and abuse of prescription medication. With the increase of prescription medication flooding the population, this has lead to society’s concern that doctors are

Rising Health care costs: how to control it In U.S., spending on health care has been growing at a faster pace than spending in rest of economy since 1960s. The government was spending 4.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) at that time, which grew to 16.2% in 2007, and is expected to rise to 20% of GDP by 2017(1). Without any drastic measures, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), these numbers will project to 25% of GDP in 2025, 30% by 2035, and 49% in 2082 (2). The major components of U.S. health care spending are hospitals (31%), physician and clinical services (21%), pharmaceuticals (10%), and other spending (25%) (3).

Advertisement of Prescription Drugs Thousands of people today rely on the use of prescription drugs to relieve anything from the severe pain of a car accident or something as little as a cough. Many people today see advertisements of prescription drugs that urges them to go to their physician to see if these drugs could perhaps relieve some of their symptoms. Yet, when doctors try to start them off on drugs that are over-the-counter or even cheaper, patients demand the harder drug they had seen advertised. The article, “Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers?” mentions the pros and cons of the advertisement of drugs that can only be legally prescribed to patients by doctors.

A Columbia University for Writing alum, Brad Tuttle in his article, 21 Incredibly Disturbing Facts About High Prescription Drug Prices published on Time.com addresses the topic of high drug prices and implies that drugs are very overpriced. He supports this claim by stating that, “The price of the life-saving drug Daraprim was jacked up 5,000% overnight last fall by the company that purchased it, Turing Pharmaceuticals, and its hated CEO Martin Shkreli” (Tuttle), then that the prices of “Epi Pens have increased 450% since 2007” (Tuttle). Tuttle’s purpose is to urge the drug companies to lower prices to life-saving drugs in order to make cancer and other diseases more affordable. He adopts a judgmental tone for his audience, the readers of Time

Steven Brill’s Bitter Pill: “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” by Angelina Salikhbaeva Summary: Steven Brill in the article “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” clarifies his opinion about the costs of healthcare services in the United States. The author writes about different stories of how families become bankrupt or unable to pay the total cost of the treatment to the US hospitals and related medical facilities. According to Steven Brill’s article, the US hospitals prescribe too much health care to patients.

In the United States alone, more than 36 million people abuse illegal substances, however, most of these are not caused by the prescription of opioids. A drug abuse crisis is overtaking the U.S. Drug abuse kills over 200,000 people worldwide each year, although only .002 percent of these deaths are caused by the prescription of opioids. 117 million people suffer from a chronic illness, many of which need the prescription of opioids to function on a daily basis. Even though many people abuse them, doctors should not stop prescribing opioids because they are necessary for many people to function, most people who abuse them have had problems with other substances, and most opioid-related deaths do not come from doctor prescribed pills.

Nowadays it seems like legal drugs are more expensive than illegal ones. This dilemma occurs because the pharmaceutical industry affects the economy significantly. Although the United States is a mixed market economy, there are instances where the economy seems like a free market economy. A free market economy allows companies to determine the prices of goods free from government intervention. The pharmaceutical industry, despite several regulations set by the food and drug administration, is a free market economy. Meaning, the pharmaceutical sector lacks government regulation and has control over the prices of specialty drugs desperately needed by the public. Therefore, the pharmaceutical industry being a free market negatively affects the

Across the world abusing prescription drugs causes more deaths than street drugs do combined (“International Statistics”). Prescription drugs are so easy to get ahold of and so easy to get addicted to. The misuse of prescription drugs have gotten out of hand. These drugs can cause unintentional overdoses easily. The misuse of prescription drugs can lead to addiction, affect the health of users in a dramatic way, and even cause death.

This system encouraged higher costs and fees and provided no incentive to control spending. In fact, spending skyrocketed. Over the course of a decade, from 1975 to 1985, Medicare annual spending per beneficiary rose from $472 to $1,579.4 Despite efforts to alter the Medicare reimbursement system, costs continue to climb. The reimbursement system was slow to move away from the fee-for-service model and contributed to this high inflation rate. As healthcare spending increased, financial strain was placed on businesses, individuals, and the government.

We are a very rich country and we want to stay that way. In the US everything comes down to profit. And the medical industry makes a lot of profit. This is one of the main reasons that the US does not like the idea of universal healthcare as it is seen as a loss of profit and a form of socialism. American culture is typically very anti-socialism.

Socialized medicine is a form of medical insurance that is available to all lawful citizens that the government covers. Throughout the United States 21.3% of the population receive benefits from the government due to their financial situation. Consequently, such benefits are not available for all citizens and may be difficult to qualify for. Moreover, Government-run programs are often cheaper, more administratively efficient, and even of superior quality than privately-run programs at the national level. If the United States began offering socialized medicine, there would be a slight rise in taxes in order to cover the 82 million dollars in costs.

Healthcare costs in the United States are constantly rising straining the budgets of families and employers. As a result of the rising healthcare costs, insurance premium rates have been also increased. The premiums rates are increasing more rapidly than income which is part of the reason why Americans aren’t able to have access to affordable health insurance. Although the Affordable Care Act has been passed, there are many people still uninsured. The purpose of the Affordable Care Act was to improve the quality of care, provide more Americans with access to affordable insurance, and minimize healthcare spending in the United States.

Recent profit driven health care systems are influencing doctors to lessen care in order to cut expenses. If a doctor prescribes a lethal medication to a patient it is cheaper rather than having the patient take medication for long term conditions and serious illness

One would expect that amount of money the US spends on healthcare to equate to great patient care and reduction of patient mortality, however, that is not