Health care in our country is broken. Drug companies charge Americans almost triple what other developed countries pay for the same drugs (Burns, 2024). I have a chronic medical condition and I’ve had to pay out of my own pocket due to coverage denials many times. I’m sick to death of being pushed around and it’s happening more and more. It makes one feel powerless to make decisions about their own health. We all need to stand up and demand more from our government. We already know that the private business world will not solve this problem. Their biggest concern is their bottom line, not the wellbeing of the patient. If our government doesn’t stand up for us, who will? We must even the playing field and give that power back to patients and their doctors.
Here are a few suggestions on how to do this.
The FDA must close patenting loopholes that allow makers of drugs such as insulin (and many others) to renew their patents indefinitely (Katebi, 2024). Cut out pharmacy benefit managers who only increase prices (Bollmeier and Griggs, 2024). Health care is making a handful of people rich while the rest of us get sicker and poorer. Start treating people like people, not a dollar sign.
I’m calling on our elected officials to grow a backbone and stand up for their constituents. Republicans especially claim to want to reduce our national deficit. When such a huge chunk of our national deficit is due to health care costs for Medicare and Medicaid (Peter G Peterson Foundation, 2024), it’s past time to get serious about making reforms!
Make changes for all Americans, not just those in government health care programs. Mike Lee, Blake Moore, Spencer Cox and Donald Trump — do more and do better!
Courtney Hutchison, Logan
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