The Cost of Prescription Medications

Flip through a magazine or sit down to watch the evening news and you’ll view at least one advertisement for a prescription medication designed to remedy anything from allergies to high blood pressure or cholesterol to sexual dysfunction. Each ad highlights the curative aspects of the product while quickly and quietly listing a long string of possible side effects. But as we skim the pages or lean back in our easy chairs, do many stop to realize that each advertisement is an expense that each American pays for at the pharmacy?

National advertising is expensive, and this expense is passed on to the consumer at the check-out register. But, is the additional expense actually beneficial? Is it even safe? The commercials are created in such a way as to make any living human believe that they have that particular medical problem. When springtime arrives, do you have sinus drainage? Do you or have you ever had acne? Do you need to lower your cholesterol? Are you sad sometimes? Are you feeling tired and run down? Are you older now and just not feeling as young as you used to? Is there anyone living who doesn’t fit into most of these categories?

In many ways, the pharmaceutical companies have begun to sell their products in the same manner by which the beauty industry lures customers to buy over-the-counter products—by doing nothing more than convincing the public that they need a particular product. But, anyone who has ever purchased beauty products knows that one product is not necessarily appropriate for everyone, even if they are experiencing the same problem. Prescription medications are the same way; one size does not fit all.

Too often, people self-diagnose and then visit a physician demanding the advertised drug; some refuse to appropriately take any alternative medication prescribed due to disagreeing with the physician’s findings. We will believe the commercials, but we’ll fail to read the insert that comes with the medication bottle or to further education ourselves on the drug beyond the commercial. During the process of attempting to empower ourselves by educating ourselves on prescription drugs, we put our own health at risk by refusing to listen to more knowledgeable health care professionals, by not following up with additional research on the product, and by ignoring the risks and the potential dangers.

Knowledge—information--is power, and patients deserve the right and the ability to empower ourselves, to educate ourselves, to know what options are available, and to be able to discuss potential diagnoses or treatment plans with the physician. Yet, the knowledge that most gain from advertising is quite expensive, especially considering how limited, vague, and distorted the information can sometimes be.

Returning to the time when drug companies did not advertise their prescription products on television and in magazines would lessen the cost of medications, but it would also decrease the amount of medical information available to the public. However, there is certainly no lack of information on the internet. So, perhaps the issue is not that pharmaceutical companies advertise but, rather, how and where they advertise. More economical advertising could be employed via the web, allowing the public to maintain a steady stream of information and yet finding somewhat lower prices at the pharmacy.

Ultimately, to cut the real cost of information the public receives on new pharmaceutical developments, perhaps the most beneficial changes that could be made is for pharmaceutical companies to be more responsible in their advertising and for citizens to be more proactive with our health by learning, reading, researching, by not falling prey to marketing gimmicks, and by remembering to listen to those more knowledgeable than ourselves.