Prescription Drugs
In a recent article, an MNBC correspondent brought up the issue of high
prices
on prescription drugs. Many of these drugs are special vitamins, as
well as
supplements that certain peoples bodies lack and need and are forced
to buy.
This poses a financial problem. If this were to happen in both
Canada and the
United States, many families in both countries would
suffer severely for this
medical reason, a reason they shouldn’t have to pay
for. In some aspects, this
is selfish of the government. By leaving these
drugs to be overpriced, the
government is basically turning a blind eye
towards the fact that many of these
people are having to spend an extra
thousand dollars, maybe an extra thousand
dollars they don’t have. The prices
on these drugs could easily be regulated,
but, as stated in the article, the
money that these companies receive goes
towards research and cures for the
treatments these people are receiving. So it
comes down to health care.
Should the health care system pay for these? While it
would solve problems,
it would also produce them. People with privatize health
care are settled,
they put in a certain amount of money each month, and they get
these
medications along with the system. If a common health care system would
pay
for these drugs, two things would occur. First, the health cares budget
would
go down. Not just a little, but it would plummet. Health care coming out
of
taxes would not be enough, and as a result, taxes would be raised. This
is
probably the last thing people want. Secondly, many, many people would go
away
from the deal much richer. Basically, it’s like asking for everyone else
to
pay for their problems. So who’s to blame? Nobody, really. You can’t
say
it’s a persons fault for being sick and requiring medical help. Also,
you
can’t expect everyone else to pay for them to get better, a lot of
people
can’t afford higher taxes, and it’s punishing them. So it is a problem
with
difficult solutions, but the best solution would be for the government
to limit
the high prices of these drugs, but at the same time, put more and
more money
into research for finding a cure for these illnesses. This would
solve both
problems, and with the budget in both Canada and the United
States, this
wouldn’t pose too many financial
problems.
Bibliography
http://www.msnbc.com/news/245699.asp