My 95-year-old great-grandma was just diagnosed with cancer. It’s not life-threatening, at the moment, but she was prescribed a certain pill to take every day. After the doctor’s visit, we went to the pharmacy, and came up to the sterile white prescription counter to pay. “I’m sorry, but you don’t have the Medicare that covers prescription drugs, it’s called Part D. You can sign up, but it’ll be about thirty four dollars a month until you cover that entry fee. Then it drops to the regular fee.” My great-grandma, who has no source of income other than what my grandma gives her from her business, was not into that plan. We asked how much the drug would cost without the plan. “It would be around $556. Per month.” Of course, like any regular human being, she thought it was outrageous. And if you think that is a lot, some people pay $10,000 dollars a month for cancer medication. Prescription prices are way too high in America, and they should be lowered for the wellbeing of our people.

Recently, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli changed the price of his tuberculosis drug from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill. This turns out to about $9,000 per month. Tuberculosis is a serious disease that severely affects the lungs. To survive this disease, you would need to pay up to $9,000. This is even worse for cancer patients. Huffington Post Writer, Erin Havel says, “I am on a daily chemotherapy drug that is saving my life… When I first started taking Gleevec in 2007 the cost was around $3,000 a month -- since then the price has risen to over $9,000 a month (Havel 1 HuffingtonPost).” These costs make my great grandma’s $556 per month seem like nothing. Some may say that since these drugs are lifesaving, they should cost this much, and that people should want to pay this much for their life. This is not the case, because most people can not afford $9,000 a month, and instead of being grateful for these drugs, they may die.

Also, many people are actually steered away from buying drugs in the U.S. nowadays. Doctors now are starting to suggest using a website called Canada Drugs, since it is easier and cheaper to get them in Canada, where healthcare is free. This causes Canada’s economy to benefit, and not ours. Prices are almost double in the U.S.: Mirapex, a Parkinson’s drug costs $157 in Canada and $163 in Canada (McKenzie 1 ABC). Yes, costing more will benefit us sooner, but in the long run, we want people to buy from the company/our country to benefit our economy and put more money back into America. We need to decrease these prices in order help our economy and not continue to hurt it.

Furthermore, we need to have a plan to decrease the prescription prices in America. First of all, we need to get rid of the penalty for joining Medicare Part D late. Many people choose not to sign up for it because they don’t need medication at that point in their life, and don’t want to pay for it since it does cost something. We need to get rid of this fee since there are many who join late, or raise awareness that they most likely will need the plan later in life. This is just a tiny part of the problem. Smaller companies, or the government, needs to create generic brands that cost less so that the larger companies monopolizing the area will lose customers. Then, these companies will see that to make money, they need to lower their prices.

As we exited the the pharmacy, my great grandma was filled with questions. How will I pay? Will I be alright if I don’t get them soon enough? How can they take advantage of people like that? America needs to keep our people at ease and lower the prices of prescription drugs in our country. Our economy and our people will be extremely grateful.