The Haunting Reality of Pharmaceutical Corruption
Have you ever been told to walk away from a treatment because you could not afford it? Someone in your family needs a life saving surgery but insurance will not cover the bill? Your medications are just too expensive to pick up every month? If you are like me, and the millions of Americans impacted by your socioeconomic status, these questions become a haunting reality every day.
Having someone look you in the eyes and tell you they will let you die if you cannot afford to pay for your life is a threat that has become increasingly prominent in the United States. Across numerous platforms, big pharmaceutical companies are wreaking havoc on people in the middle and lower classes. The first time this had happened directly to me was in 2017, yet my family has been suffering much longer. Every surgery, doctors visit, and new medication needed made us hold our breath. In 2017, I was prescribed multiple medications for a chronic illness, something that will never go away, and I must be medicated for the rest of my life. The worst part about this situation, was the affordability, or lack thereof.
“The prescriptions this month will cost $1,600,” is a sentence I never expected to hear in my life. Three little pills taken once a day, cost $1,600 for a month? Every month? How is it even possible for medicine to cost that much? There was no way I could handle this, and neither could my family. Three and a half years later, I could probably buy a BMW with the money I have spent on pharmaceutical medication. At the time, I knew we could not afford this. Who has thousands of dollars to throw away every month for the rest of your life? This led me to taking my medication every other day, or every two days. If you are prescribed medication for a chronic condition, you cannot just take it as you please, you have to follow a strict coherent schedule to manage the illness at hand. But I was so worried about price, I let myself worsen month after month trying to stretch the pills as long as possible.
Eventually, working with my insurance company, multiple doctors, and lots of copay cards, I was able to adapt and cover some portions of my medications monthly. However, this is not the case for many people. So many are forced to succumb to illnesses that could be treated, just because of the price from pharmacies. I was able to work out a way for my medicine to be partially covered, but so many people are not that lucky. Every year millions lose their lives to treatable conditions, because they simply cannot afford the treatments. How can we equate socioeconomic status to life versus death? Why can someone blatantly ignore treatable illnesses due to the fact that monetary resources are not there? Where is the legal morality behind affordable treatments for a range of conditions? Why does money equal health?