Big Pharma Must Stop Exploiting The Sick!
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Sponsor: The Breast Cancer Site
Price hikes are forcing ordinary Americans to sacrifice their health for the sake of pharmaceutical companies' profits!
In 2015, America was outraged as the cost of a little-known drug called Daraprim skyrocketed overnight from $13.50 to $750 a pill1. In 2016, the ubiquitous allergy medicine Epi-Pen rose from $100 to $600 in an instant2.
Why? Profit.
These scandals are just two examples of a pervasive problem with American healthcare, which allows pharmaceutical companies to set prices as they see fit with a patchwork system of insurance providers. There are no restrictions of profit margins3. There is little transparency in the pricing process.
The result? Americans pay more for prescription drugs than any other nation in the world4.
In most European countries, single-payer health systems use their size to negotiate big discounts5, but the United States does not have a similar program and the Affordable Care Act did nothing to rein in the costs of prescription drugs when it was passed6.
Clearly, something needs to change. When the price of lifesaving drugs suddenly goes from affordable to exorbitant, people deserve to understand why.
When the VA is allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies but Medicare is not7, Medicare ends up with a deal that's better for the pharmaceutical companies than the people Medicare serves.
Two changes to current American policy would go a long way to ensuring pharmaceutical companies don't exploit the sick:
- Require drug-makers to justify the costs of their treatments and disclose major price hikes.
- Repeal the noninterference clause of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 which prevents Medicare, the single largest payer for health care in the U.S., from negotiating directly with drug companies.
The American public shouldn't be expected to pad the pocketbooks of wealthy pharmaceutical executives! Lives are on the line.
Sign the petition ask the Department of Health and Human Services to enact these changes which would be a good start to controlling out-of-control drug prices in the United States.
- Andrew Pollack, The New York Times (20 September 2015), "Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight."
- Ike Swetlitz, STAT (6 July 2016), "High price of EpiPens spurs consumers, EMTs to resort to syringes for allergic reactions."
- Fred D. Ledley, Sarah Shonka McCoy, Gregory Vaughan, Ekaterina Galkina Cleary, Journal of the American Medical Association (3 March 2020), "Profitability of Large Pharmaceutical Companies Compared With Other Large Public Companies."
- Kathleen Doheny, (29 January 2021), "U.S. Drug Prices Much Higher Than in Other Nations."
- Goran Ridic, Suzanne Gleason, Ognjen Ridic, Materia Socio-Medica (2012), "Comparisons of Health Care Systems in the United States, Germany and Canada."
- Caitlin Owens, Morning Consult (24 March 2016), "Why Prescription Drugs Aren't Part of Obamacare."
- U.S. Government Accountability Office (15 December 2020), "Prescription Drugs: Department of Veterans Affairs Paid About Half as Much as Medicare Part D for Selected Drugs in 2017."
The Petition:
To the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
I am writing to you to express my concern for the growing cost of prescription drugs in the United States. Pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of ordinary, sick Americans, and it's up to you to do something about it.
Over the past few years, from Daraprim to EpiPen, we have seen a series of scandals emerge as pharmaceutical companies increase the prices of old drugs in an attempt to increase profits year after year. Since the United States has no single-payer healthcare system, this means the American public is being asked to shoulder the burden of these companies limitless greed at the cost of their health and financial stability.
Clearly, something needs to change. When the price of lifesaving drugs suddenly goes from affordable to exorbitant, people deserve to understand why. When the VA is allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies, but Medicare is not, Medicare ends up with a deal that's better for the pharmaceutical companies than the people Medicare serves.
Two changes to current American policy would go a long way to ensuring pharmaceutical companies don't exploit the sick:
- Require drug-makers to justify the costs of their treatments and disclose major price hikes.
- Repeal the noninterference clause of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 which prevents Medicare, the single largest payer for health care in the U.S., from negotiating directly with drug companies.
Please, enact the above policies which would be a good start to controlling out-of-control drug prices in the United States. The American public shouldn't be expected to pad the pocketbooks of wealthy pharmaceutical executives.
Sincerely,
