14 DAY TRIAL // The Rand Corporation, a non-profit entity, recently conducted a new study claiming that imposing price limitations on drugs currently available on the US market could reduce the average life expectancy of the population and offer very few savings in the long run. The report, which was funded by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc., has already received numerous critics from the scientific community, which argues that some of the conclusions are far-fetched, or simply untrue.
Leaving aside the fact that an “independent” study is funded by a private company, there are numerous aspects to be considered in this matter.
First, the paper, authored by Darius Lakdawalla, says that European-style price limitations could bring life expectancy down by as much as half a year, while at the same time decreasing innovation, as companies are not stimulated to invest in research&development anymore. Critics to this idea say that innovation will have no reason to go down and say that the market trends of the last few years, on which the study was based, are irrelevant, because of the many fluctuations it experienced.
While drug costs in the US nearly tripled between 1997 and 2007, this year saw just a 1,6 percent increase in sales, which means that the prices have reached a “turning point.”
Second, Lakdawalla suggests that, instead of a federal price limit, the drug insurance co-payments could be decreased by some 20 percent, giving people the opportunity to pay less for their pills. On the other hand, imposing a nation-wide limit could mean that more people get access to more medication, and that the federal government can set up investment funds, for corporations seeking to create innovation.
The problem in the US is the fact that the health care system is corporate-based, which means that insurance firms treat it just like a car sale or renting a house. The respect for human life has been lost in the process, and uninsured patients die each year due to the fact that they are not given proper attention.
A complete and thorough overhaul of the entire system is in order, and not just of the institutions involved, but also of mentalities. A publicly-funded health care system would remove intermediaries from the loop, offering people clinical care in hospitals nation-wide, free of charge. And this would be the only way to pull America out of the shameful situation it's in right now, when it has to pay the highest per capita price on all drugs. Cuba, which is regarded as a third world country, has infinitely lower prices.