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Marissa Tom
Professor Busby
English 102
3 March 2015
Abstract
Healthcare is unaffordable for the average person. Due to growing medical and prescription
costs, consumers and health insurance companies find it difficult to afford the already high
prices. Regulations on the manufacturing of prescription drugs give drug companies a monopoly
that allow them to overcharge pharmacies and inturn the consumer. The Affordable Care Act is
not able to bring down prescription and medical costs and actually causes the consumer to pay a
higher deductible in an attempt to lower health insurance costs. In order to lower insurance costs,
regulations on prescription drugs need to be lowered to allow for a free market system to take
effect.

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Not-So-Affordable Healthcare
For years solutions for affordable health care have been presented, yet we are still waiting
on a permanent solution. Today, we have the Affordable Care Act enacted by President Obama in
an attempt to fix the system. However, this act does nothing to help the rising costs of medical
care or prescription drugs. It only mandates that everyone must have some form of health
insurance or pay a fine. Health care is in no way more affordable now than it was before the act.
The only difference is that many health care expenses are now being tacked on to our countrys
skyrocketing debt, and, with no limit to how much debt we can accumulate, the number will
keep rising until there is no way we will ever be able to pay it off. Even now we are only able to
pay the interest on the debt and nothing more. If the number keeps rising, there will come a day
where we will no longer be able to even afford the interest. Our task should not be to push all
health care expenses on the countrys debt--which will ultimately come out of our pockets
through taxes,-- rather we should be working on a way to eliminate the high costs of health care
itself. Eliminating the rising costs of health care and prescription drugs will make healthcare
more affordable for insurance companies as well as the average person.
The Affordable Care Act was the solution proposed by President Obama, and while it has
addressed some problems within the health care system, many other problems arise from the act.
In forcing everyone to have health insurance or pay a fine, the act has in a sense taken away the
freedom to choose whether or not a person wants to purchase health insurance. While the
intentions are good in the sense that everyone should be able to have health coverage, it does not
help with the countrys rising debt. More people than ever are filing for Medicaid or one of its
counterparts, and under 700,000 people have signed up for Obamacare as of last year (Troy 1). In
fact, when asked, the government lied about the number and showed that over 700,000 people

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had signed up for Obamacare in order to gain more approval rating from the public (1).
However, lies about the approval rating do not account for the spike in spending for health
insurance. Since 1960 (before Medicaid and Medicare were established), federal, state, and local
spending on health care costs have increased 30-fold (Conover 1). With the new Affordable Care
Act, that number has risen 17-fold (1). The rise in spending does little to help the growing
deficit, and will cause an increase in taxes in order to pay it off. As of right now, taxes are only
covering the interest. If the debt continues to rise, taxes will no longer be able to cover the
interest, and then the country has an even bigger problem. Putting everyone on insurance will
just increase the amount of spending the insurance companies have and pile more debt onto the
country deficit, which will only be a temporary fix. The problem is not getting everyone on
health insurance, it is bringing the costs of healthcare down. Bringing down the costs of
prescriptions would make a small, but significant, dent in the overall spending.
Prescription drugs are expensive to both insurance companies and the consumer, however
the costs to make the prescription drugs are significantly cheaper than what they are sold for.
According to William Faloon in his article, How To Turn 8 Pennies Into $600, the hepatitis C
drug, which is known to cure 90 percent of patients, costs the consumer around $1,000 per pill,
while it costs under two dollars to make (9). The reason for this is a monopoly pharmaceutical
companies hold due to regulations on the manufacturing of drugs inforced by the FDA (8). Not
many people can afford prices like that, so we rely on health insurance companies, and for lowincome individuals the costs will be covered by Medicaid or a similar program which is paid for
with the taxes collected by the government (9). Everyone pays taxes, so we are all paying for
these rip-off drug prices one way or another, (9). Insurance companies counter the costs by
raising their insurance costs. This makes insurance less affordable for the average individual and

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causes people to be less likely to buy it, which inturn causes people to not be able to go to the
doctor when they need to. However, with the new Affordable Care Act, people must purchase
insurance or face a penalty. With this act insurance was also supposed to become more
affordable.
The Cadillac tax, which was added to the Affordable Care Act, is meant to bring down
the overall cost of insurance and make it more affordable for the consumer. However, the
Cadillac tax forces insurance companies to raise their deductibles in order to decrease their
overall costs (Troy 3). This tax is meant to lower the costs of insurance so people will be more
likely to buy into it, however since the deductibles are higher people are still paying the
difference without fully realizing it. The tax is merely a trick in order to make the consumer
think prices are low when in reality the out-of-pocket costs are higher. Prescription costs are a
main factor, and due to higher deductibles, people are going to be paying more on prescriptions
than anything else. Reducing prescription costs would be a great solution.
To reduce the costs of prescription medications, we must take away some of the
regulations and let a free market economy bring down the costs. Many prescription drugs cost
around 30,000 percent more than their active ingredient (Faloon 11). This price increase gives
the prescription drug companies a large profit while forcing consumers and insurance companies
to pay their prices. Because pharmaceutical companies are allowed to patent their products, they
are able to, increase income for executives and shareholders, rather than the health of
consumers, (Rosch 1). Little to no competitors means the pharmaceutical companies can charge
as much as they want without interference. This monopoly is how, drug companies have
consistently been the most profitable U.S. industry, and that pharmacracy now dominates the
practice of medicine, (1). Faloon suggests that the solution is to, open up the market so that

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any reputable company could produce something as simple as [shingles ointment] and the many
other generics that dont require specialized manufacturing expertise, (Faloon 12). With an open
market, most prescription drug prices will drop because of competition between companies, and
inturn the drugs will become more affordable for the consumer as well as insurance companies.
With more affordable drugs, insurance companies will be able to either lower their costs or even
lower their prescription deductibles so people will be able to save money for other expenses.
General medical care and doctor visits are expensive too, and in order to really make
insurance more affordable, health care costs should be brought down. Complementary and
alternative medicine (CAM), is a great alternative to going to the doctor and getting a
prescription. Studies show that, Implementing CAM treatments such as chiropractic care can
reduce disability costs and absenteeism, (Alternative Medicine 2). If insurance companies were
to cover CAM treatments, it would be a less expensive solution to covering millions of
prescriptions for problems that could be helped in different ways. Other CAM treatments like,
nutritional therapies also are popular and may be monitored by a registered dietician for weight
loss, heart disease prevention, or recoveries from heart surgery, (2). These treatments would
help prevent future problems that would cause someone to need to see a doctor and bring down
overall medical costs.
Others may argue that the costs of pharmaceuticals are justified. According to Epstein,
because of all the clinical trials that drug companies face to get their product passed by the FDA
(Epstein 1). Because the patents time period is relatively short and companies have to spend
more on research to reach the market, they only have a short amount of time to make that money
back (1). In this case, charging more seems like the only way to profit; however, the companies
are overpricing their product too much. Today, pharmaceutical companies are the highest

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profiting industry in America, (Rosch 1). All this increase in revenue that the people in need of
prescriptions are not in their best interest; instead, they are caring more about the amount of
money they are making. The prices are not justified because their profit is so high that the initial
costs to make their products outweigh the amount of money they are taking home in their
pockets. The consumer should be the first priority of pharmaceutical companies,but instead they
care more about their profits.
Healthcare is extremely important for everyone, so prescriptions and medical care should
be more affordable. Obtaining affordable prescriptions would involve eliminating the high costs
with a free market economy which would drive the cost of insurance down and make insurance
more affordable for the consumer, and more affordable medical care would involve
implementing CAM treatments in order to spend less on prescriptions and doctor visits. These
solutions will benefit people and insurance companies, and help everyone to be able to afford
healthcare.

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Work Cited
Conover, Christopher J. "The New Health Care Law Worsens Inefficiencies in Spending."
Government Spending. Ed. Nol Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing
Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Health Is the Health of the State." American. 2011. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
Epstein, Richard A. "The Cost of Prescription Drugs Is Justified." The Pharmaceutical Industry.
Ed. Jamuna Carroll. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from
"What's Good for Pharma Is Good for America." Boston Globe 3 Dec. 2006: E1.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
Faloon, William. How To Turn 8 Pennies Into $600. Life Extension September 2014: 7-13.
Print. Alabama Virtual Library. 19 Jan. 2015.
Rosch, Paul J. "Pharmaceutical Companies Push Doctors to Prescribe Unnecessary Drugs."
Prescription Drugs. Ed. Sylvia Engdahl. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2014.
Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Are Drug Companies Now Selling Sickness?" Health
and Stress (June 2010). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
Troy, Tevi. "2015: The ObamaCare crucible." Commentary 139.1 (2015): 11+. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
"A Complementary Medical Treatment Approach Can Lower Health Care Costs." Alternative
Medicine. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints.
Rpt. from "Sticking It to Health Care Costs: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Can Reduce Pain, Drive Health Costs Down." Employee Benefit News. 2011. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

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