The Oct. 3 Health & Science article “Beating the rising costs of Rx drugs” offered useful personal strategies to mitigate rising prescription drug costs. However, systemic change is crucial for enduring reform that confronts Big Pharma profiteering, a driver of sky-high drug prices, and prioritizes public health. Temporary assistance programs serve merely as bandages, masking corporations’ unchecked authority to set inflated prescription drug costs and steering patients toward costlier brands. This profit-centric status quo is utterly unacceptable.
Our nation urgently needs aggressive policy reforms, including empowering Medicare to negotiate pricing for all drugs and import drugs. This step would curb big pharma’s pricing autonomy and spark competition, mirroring the public’s impactful response to the EpiPen cost surge in 2016. Beyond policy, harnessing technology and galvanizing community action is pivotal. Digital platforms can foster price competition, and local initiatives can extend a lifeline to vulnerable communities, easing the financial burden of medication costs.
Furthermore, dismantling the dangerous myth that astronomical prices equate to superior value is imperative. Through sensible regulation, many nations nurture innovation without succumbing to price gouging. It’s high time we demand an end to profiteering and advocate for reasonable pricing structures that prioritize patients over profits.
Though the article provided recommendations for individual respite, the real prescription lies in decisive reform and societal change that positions public health above profiteering.
Diane J. Young, Fort Washington
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