3 Ways Healthcare Costs Can Drop

In this day and age over 50 million Americans (16% of the United States) are deprived of proper healthcare. One main factor of this is due to how expensive it is: yielding an average of $500/ month for a single individual. What people don’t realize is that there are loopholes that can be created in the medical industry to help better accommodate for ones that don’t have health insurance and can’t afford it.

1.    Creating Inclusive Medications

Have you ever been shopping and seen a combo deal? They typically give you your money’s worth and usually end up benefiting you in the end, right? 

Now, think of it like this: You enter your local pharmacy looking for blood pressure medication and vitamins. The average cost of prescribed blood pressure medication in the US as of 2022 is $329.03 (30 tablets with common dosage) and $10.41 for vitamin supplements. That is two different types of medicines which get quite expensive despite the idea that they can be combined for a similar purpose. You might be wondering how? 

Referring to our example, many clinical tests and studies have shown that vitamin supplements such as Vitamin D, C, and B can assist in the process of lowering blood pressure. Hence, pharmaceutical scientist should put effort into creating medications that can better one’s health and be more affordable/ cost effective to them. This way people can have the money to purchase their medications, which can lead to enough money for health insurance. 

2. Hospitals Are In It, To Win It

When you hear a casual conversation about someone who’s been to the hospital, you have probably heard that they were faced with various and costly bills afterwards. Since different people have different health insurance companies, hospitals are able to charge them as much as the market is willing to pay. 

In addition, many hospitals conduct unnecessary tests only to prevent lawsuits, but those extra tests end up costly an added $1,400 to the one’s overall hospital bill. Furthermore, have you ever noticed the salaries the high salaries of doctors and nurses? Private hospital staff earn an average of $26,000 more than government hospitals showing that costs can be cut down to make the basic necessity of getting healthcare available to all. 

By overseeing health systems, the government should control drug, hospital, and medical equipment costs as well as decide who patients can see based on how much they are willing to pay. This way the costs will be controlled, but also allow people to receive the care they need.

 

3.  Disclosing the Secret

Look at the fine print on your prescription bottles/ medications. This information includes the basic details like strength, vitamins, and what it does, right? Well, that definitely isn’t enough for medical drugs to be made; there’s a lot that more to it. Many times, private medical companies create a new/innovative formula for a drug that improves a specific health concern people have. Often, if this drug or its composition is not common in the market, the business will keep it to themselves in order to maximize profits. Here is where the monopoly comes in. Since that specific company is the only one making the product, they can sell it overpriced/ for higher prices. 

Seems normal, right? Wrong. What many people don’t realize is that if this drug’s composition formula is released into the market, other companies/ competitors would be able to create the same or similar drug, making it more widely available for people, and with cheaper prices. When various people are faced with the obstacles of medication costs, these competitors would be able to make the drug more affordable. This way people would be able to get the medicine they need, while paying a reasonable price.

 

When more people realize that there are ways to be able to escape the long medical bills and the extensive health insurance prices, more action will be taken to make this basic necessity, available to all. Whether it’s business or the government, they can take a foot forward to look into these loopholes in order to allow for what is best for everyone.