The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath

Drug prices are rising especially for critical Asthma drugs, as covered by the New York Times.

What makes this article stick out in my mind is the graphic that compares the price of lifesaving Asthma medications in the United States to other countries. For example, $250 in the US can buy you two Qvar inhalers, while in Greece for the same amount of money you can get 37. Another example is what $250 can buy you of Colcrys pills, 51 in the US, which doesn't seem like all that bad of a number, until you see that for the same $250 you could have had 9,153 pills in Saudi Arabia. Users of these drugs have no choice but to pay the exorbitant prices because they simply want to be able to breathe comfortably.

The article tells the story of John Aravosis, who picks up inhalers while on vacation in Paris because it's the only way he's able to not skip or scrimp on dosage, like many other Asthma patients are forced to. The demand for these drugs is inelastic, people can skip or scrimp, but it's at the risk of having an attack that might land them in an emergency room. Generics are almost impossible to make because of the patents on the delivery methods and formulas. The FDA also finds it hard to approve the new formulas because it's hard to see the effects deep in someone's lungs. The US has incredibly high prices on potentially life-saving Asthma drugs, which needs to change.

A follow up article focuses on helping consumers shop smarter for their medications. It focuses on websites like goodrx.com where consumers can see local prescription prices and coupons for them. For example, the author of this article looked up her inflammatory medication and saw that instead of $20 with her insurance she could get it at Target for $4.  A similar website is medibid.com which allows physicians to bid on a patients procedure, hoping to get the business with their lower rate. For example, the Weber family was quoted $14,000 for a knee surgery in Tennessee, so they took to MediBid and ended up paying on $3,700 in nearby Virginia. There are now ways for consumers to not be totally taken advantage of by the healthcare system, and hopefully this is just the beginning.