"One concerning issue in the medical industry is the continual rise of drug prices. The best medications should be accessible to anyone, regardless of financial or social status. There has been a rising concern with big pharma creating drugs and pricing them so high that they are unattainable to most uninsured people. I have been reading about strategies to make pharmaceutical drugs and specific therapies accessible and affordable to everyone. One resource I found particularly interesting was a 2018 release by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine called 'Making Medicines Affordable: A National Imperative.' This publication outlined that the US is facing increased challenges in controlling the rise of health care costs. The cost of prescription drugs and biopharmaceuticals is a major socio-economic concern. The research outlines that drug affordability relies on numerous complex factors and not just the price of the drugs. Other factors to consider are a person's insurance coverage and how many medical conditions they are treating. Considering all of these components, and after reading this research in detail, I believe we could start by changing insurance policies and their structure, particularly around drug access. Placing additional focus on innovation in drug development could also help alleviate the pain point since that could prevent the drug shortages that cause inflating drug prices."
