The increase in affordability problems likely stemmed from higher prescribing rates, drug prices that are rising faster than workers’ earnings, higher patient cost sharing in private insurance and the introduction of expensive new medications.
So there are all these new expensive medications, and doctors are prescribing them a lot, and people can't afford them. But hmm....maybe some of these medications aren't really necessary. Maybe some of them have cheaper generic alternatives that work just as well.
So people aren't taking all their medicines, but those medications aren't necessarily ones they need. They do need SOME kind of medicine for that hypertension or high cholesterol, but it doesn't have to be the fancy new model, all shiny and fresh from the show room.
The problem is, patients don't always know when they can switch to a generic drug. So if they can't afford the fancy new medicine, they just take nothing. Which is a real tragedy, because for just about every real medical problem that exists, there's at least one cheap medicine out there.
Let it not be said that this is an anti-Pharma blog. It's just as much an anti-physician blog. I myself am a physician, and I too find those catchy brand names popping into my head when I'm considering which statin to prescribe, or how to treat neuropathic pain. On a busy day in the clinic, it's easy to prescribe the drug that pops into your head, rather than taking the time to think about whether the patient can afford it.
Which is why doctors need to give ourselves space from Pharma, so we have the room to make the right decisions for the right reasons.
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