In class we talked a bit about
personal ethnics and how that may affect our choices as a pharmacist. As we
work closely with other healthcare professionals, I brought up the ethnics of
physicians. I was unaware their profession was undergoing similar ethical controversies.
However, in this blog I am going to bring back pharmaceutical and insurance
companies. Some people may see many of their choices as unethical.
My
first example would be the story about the kids that bought the HIV medication
and increased the price to thousands of dollars. While this is an extreme
example, it shows that people can abuse the pharmaceutical industry. We talked
in class about drug companies need to recuperate the research and develop of a
drug. We have to trust them that they are not unethically setting the prices
too high and that people can get these medications if they really need them.
In
addition to that, these drug companies are the ones that decide which drugs to
produce. When manufacturing a certain drug because too costly, the company can
decide to stop producing that product. This in turn reduces competition. With
fewer competitors in the market, prices tend to rise. Again, we have to have
faith these companies will not take advantage of these circumstances. We have
to believe they will still set the attainable prices for the patients.
Insurance
companies can either contribute or remove some of the price barriers of
medications. They have their formularies with their set copays. Insurance
companies have rules the patient must follow or they could have serious,
usually financial, consequences. If a patient’s medications fall under those
covered by insurance, that barrier is reduced or even removed. However, if it
is not, then the patient has to jump through hoops to try to get it approved.
And the insurance company still has the ability to deny the request to get it
covered. Is it ethical for an insurance company to not cover necessary
medication? In other words, is it ethical for them to decide what is medically
necessary for a patient? Is it ethically for them to cover only certain
medications?
In
general, one of the biggest problems I see in America’s healthcare system is
how price can dictate care. My question is how ethical is it to put a price on
someone’s health? All healthcare providers are guilty of contributing to the
tremendous prices, pharmacists included. We need to ask ourselves: What are we costing
our patients and it is ethical to charge them for these services?
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