Breathing with a Cost

For some people, breathing comes with a cost. About 40 million people in the U.S. have a chronic disease called Asthma. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says that asthma is a “lung disease that that narrows the airways” and “causes wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing.” Asthma can be easily treated with inhalers and medication, but for many, buying the medicine is not easy.

New York Times says “Pulmicort, a steroid inhaler, generally retails for over $175 in the United States” and “pharmacists in Britain buy the identical product for about $20 and dispense it free of charge to asthma patients.” On the article from New York Times, there is a visual that compares the number of inhalers, allergy sprays, and medication one could get for $250 in the U.S. and in other countries. The differences are huge, and other countries sell Asthma medication for a lot less compared to the U.S. The annual cost for asthma is more than $56 billion. Many avoidable hospital visits and more than 3,300 deaths, that dealt with Asthma, involved patients who were frugal with or did not take their medication.

After reading the article, I started to wonder why medications have such high costs in the U.S. compared to other countries, like France and Belgium. Even though the article blames new packaging for one of the causes of the increase in price, there must be a bigger reason why the prices keep increasing. The price of medicine wasn't always this high. An Albuterol inhaler costs anywhere from $50-$100 now, when it retailed for less then $15 a decade years ago. In 2012, generic medication has increased 5.3% in prices, while name brand medication has increased 25% (Health Care Cost Institute). 

So why have prices increased over the past decade? Why does the U.S. sell these asthma medications at a higher cost than other countries? Should the cost of asthma medication remain the same if it means hindering someone from breathing? What are Americans doing about the problem, if they are? Should Americans even care about the situation at all?