Medicine: Simple cost of breath can be high

1.    New York Times. (2013, October 13).  Medicine:  Simple cost of breath can be high.  Houston Chronicle, A4.

2.    Category of problem:  Health

3.    Level of problem:  National level

4.    The article concerns:  Asthma is the most common chronic disease in America affect about 40 million people.

5.    Why is this important to families / individuals OR how does it affect individuals / families?

a.    Asthma can usually be easily controlled with drugs.  But, those drugs are some of the costliest medications for prescription drugs in the United States.  Individuals and families are finding it hard to afford the drugs these days as some health insurance policies do not cover the drug.

6.    What are your views on the issue / policy?

a.    Asthma is one of the most debilitating of physical ailments caused by allergies of all sorts – pet dander, plant pollen or a number of other allergens.  The symptoms are swelling of the airways of the lungs resulting in coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, anxiety as well as other symptoms. More severe complications of asthma include changing breathing patterns and even death.  The Centers for Disease Control estimated that there are 3300 deaths annually attributed to the disease with millions more needlessly making emergency room trips because they held back on their medication or didn’t take it all.  The situation with asthma medication is there no generic forms of the drug available to the public in the United States, mostly the result of patent issues surrounding those drugs.  Inhalers are the most common form of treatment options – either long-term, daily inhalers, or quick relief, emergency types.  The problem is these medicines are quite expensive, even for people with insurance that does pay the benefit.  So, often times, people will either ration themselves, or go without to make the prescriptions last longer than normal.  But, sometimes this backfires resulting in needless attacks or trips to the hospital.  The frustrating part of the situation is that, supposedly, the drugs are not that expensive to make, but the drug companies want to maximize their profits and charge a much higher cost.  Some people are even resorting to seeking the inhaler medications in places like Europe or Mexico.  I’m lucky that I don’t suffer from asthma or other allergies, but if I did, I might seek the same remedies as they do.