The Price of Life

There's a popular saying that life is priceless. But big pharmaceutical companies put a price on life. For them, diabetes is $700 in yearly insulin profits. Depression is $6,000 in yearly antidepressant profits. Cancer is $50,000 in yearly chemotherapy profits. These companies prioritize their wealth over America's health, and it's time America did something about it. 

 

To get a closer look at the way these companies operate, let's first check up on how they make their money. 

 

In 2024, major pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Moderna, generated over $800 billion in revenue. But how did these pharmaceutical companies make so much? The Harvard Medical School notes that, due to the lack of price caps on drugs, pharmaceutical companies in the United States are able to overprice their products and maximize profits. That's why a vial of insulin, costing companies just $4 to produce, would cost you or me $400. 

 

While large pharmaceutical companies rake in billions, we, the patients, are left to bear the consequences. It's estimated that roughly 1 in 4 Americans cannot afford to pay for key prescription drugs like Atorvastatin or Amlodipine - two drugs key for treating high blood pressure and cholesterol, preventing heart attacks and strokes. 

 

When patients can't afford to pay for prescription drugs, they often end up back in the hospital within a couple of months. This is why, just due to not being able to afford prescriptions, over the next decade, an estimated 1.1 million Americans will lose their lives. The wealth of corporations is hurting the health of citizens, creating more flatlines instead of lifelines. 

 

That seems like a pretty grim diagnosis of our healthcare system - so what's the solution?

 

I'd be lying to you if I told you there is an easy fix; instead, it requires a restructuring of American healthcare. Instead of private healthcare insurance, the United States should adopt a universal healthcare model. When private insurers are gone, Pfizer or Moderna can only sell to the government. That means the government can instruct pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices. 

 

But this isn’t some revolutionary cure to healthcare. 

 

Many developed countries around the world use a universal model and, coincidentally, have some of the lowest drug prices. It's estimated that forcing pharmaceutical companies to negotiate drug prices with the government would result in a 27% decrease in drug costs under a universal healthcare model. 

 

One of the most prominent critiques of a universal healthcare model is that it would lead to increased wait times. After all, if healthcare becomes more accessible and affordable - wouldn’t our hospitals be overburdened and overfilled?

 

On the most basic level, when Americans can afford prescription medications, they won’t end up in hospital in the first place. With lower drug prices, Americans could afford to take medications like Atorvastatin and control their cholesterol at home instead of spending time in hospital beds after suffering a stroke. This would leave doctors with fewer patients, reducing their burnout and enabling them to provide better care for each individual. 

 

Most opponents focus on Canada as a case study, arguing that a universal system in the U.S. would worsen wait times. Yet, due to the United States spending almost double per capita on healthcare ($13,432) compared to Canada ($7,013), the U.S. has developed more infrastructure, like artificial intelligence, that can help deal with the influx of patients. 

 

This new artificial intelligence helps automate tasks such as patient records and rote procedures, allowing doctors to complete tasks that previously took hours in mere minutes, thereby giving them more time to spend with additional patients. In 2016, a study found that doctors spent over half of their time on paperwork and administrative tasks and only 27% of their time in patient care settings. But, unlike Canada, American hospitals are now willing to adopt artificial intelligence, freeing doctors from those administrative tasks. At Kaiser Permanente, the internal use of AI as a scribe saved physicians 15,000 working hours in just one year. That is 15,000 working hours that can be spent caring for patients, reducing burnout, and improving health outcomes. 

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It is high time that America stopped favoring millionaire executives and started protecting the millions, ensuring that life-saving medications can truly save lives. The Yale School of Public Health found that universalizing our healthcare system would decrease drug prices and improve hospital care to the point that 212,000 lives could be saved in just one year.

 

America is a country built on capitalism, and so naturally, with the right price, you can buy many things, from the latest technology to even your way out of jail for the wealthiest. But the one thing you can never buy back is a life lost. If life truly is priceless, how can we allow pharmaceutical companies to price Americans out of one.