Increased pharmaceutical spending results more from increased usage and new products than higher prices. That is, more people are using better medicines. For this reason prices cannot be debated in isolation. Costs must be compared to benefits, says Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
People demand pharmaceuticals because they offer enormous value:
Pharmaceuticals are an especially important reason why deaths from AIDS have dropped dramatically. But medicines do more than extend and improve the quality of lives. Drugs also cut other medical expenditures, reducing hospitalisations, surgeries and other, more invasive, treatments, notes Bandow.
Obviously, the fact that drugs offer extensive benefit doesn’t mean that expense is unimportant. But based on cost considerations alone, hospital and physician charges are a bigger issue. Pharmaceuticals should be treated as part of the solution, not part of the problem, of rising medical expenditures, says Bandow.
Source: Doug Bandow, The costs of health care, Washington Times, March 2, 2005.
For text (subscription required): http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050301-090939-4632r.htm
For more on Health Care and Drugs: http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 08 March 2005
