C. revealed some factors affecting healthcare costs. This includes (Francis, 2003).
Drug companies who are spending roughly as much on advertising and promotion - $20 billion a year - as they do on research and development of new drugs.
American pharmaceutical firms employing one sales person for every physician in the country. They also pick up the tab for doctors to attend seminars promoting their products.
New technology - from diagnostic devices to surgical techniques - which usually accounts for more than half the rise in total healthcare spending in the past three years.
Profit margins on healthcare products and services, including health insurance, have been continuously going up - rapidly - rather than down.
How to Solve the Issue
What's to be done about rising medical costs? Here are some suggestions by experts (Francis, 2003).
Provide more information to consumers on what drug works, what procedures are best, which hospitals and physicians have good records. Insurance, for instance, shouldn't cover extra costs if a patient uses a brand-name drug when a cheaper generic does the job.
Cut off expensive treatment if it extends someone's life only a few days or months.
Spend more on prevention of disease by encouraging better lifestyles, improved nutrition, and other steps.
Ban or control the advertising of prescription drugs to consumers. The "hype" in the ads that pepper the evening news and other programs has swelled drug sales and taken up physicians' time, suggests Mr. Caplan. But there is little indication that the extra drug consumption has improved health by much.
Cap malpractice awards so doctors need not prescribe so many tests and other...
Added to this, it is but an important process for all to have a broad knowledge on how one can keep themselves healthy so as to avoid incurring so much money on healthcare costs. People should learn what right foods to eat and what food we should be avoiding, we all should understand the safest way of doing to acquire lesser frequencies of accidents, we should appreciate more the importance of keeping away from any vices which more often than not brings bad effects to our body, and we should be taught of the proper diet and exercise. In short, the bottom line here is, keeping a healthy and balanced life will keep us away from having frequent problems on healthcare costs.
Works Cited
Cost Studies. 2004. http://www.bcbs.com/coststudies/.
Francis, David R. Healthcare costs are up. Here are the culprits. December 2003. Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1215/p21s01-coop.htm.
Keeping Quality Health Care Affordable. 2004. http://www.bcbs.com/cost/.
One in three families with young children can't afford basics like food, housing, and healthcare, report shows. 2004. Economic Policy Institute. http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/press_releases_hardships
U.S.Census Bureau, Current Population Survey 2004.
