US
Pharm. 2006;5:3.
The latest reports from
financial analysts who closely watch the health care sector are telling us
what we all already know in our gut to be true: Health care costs are out of
control. In fact, depending on what report you read, by the end of the decade,
health care spending will represent anywhere from 16% to 20% of the U.S.
economy. To put it into perspective, USA Today recently reported the
federal government is admitting that within a decade, $1 out of every $5 spent
in the U.S. economy will go for health care, with annual spending consistently
growing faster than the overall economy. WNBC.com ran a recent story with the
headline "Nation's Health Care Bill to Hit $4 Trillion by 2015."
A great many factors cause
this dramatic rise in health care costs, not the least of which is that
Americans are living longer and need more treatment and medication. Natural
disasters also contribute to the rise, as does the recently enacted Medicare
Part D legislation, which will specifically increase government spending on
prescription medication from about 2% to 27% this year alone. While
medications are only a fraction of the overall cost of the health care bill
(approximately 10%), they are a major factor in controlling those costs.
However, I firmly believe that the medications themselves are not the answer;
it is how prescriptions are used.
The solution to solving the
nation's staggering health care bill is relatively simple, and yet, top
economists in both the government and private sectors have barely broached the
topic. The solution in a single word is compliance.
The truth of the matter is
that sickness and devastating illnesses will always be with us. But you would
think that since the success rate for treating devastating diseases has been
steadily increasing over the years, people would be healthier, thus reducing
the nation's health care expenditures. That is almost true. So why are costs
skyrocketing? The answer is simple. As a nation, we have to make sure that
patients are compliant to their treatment, including their medication therapy.
Study after study has
demonstrated that patients with acute or critical illnesses who adhere to
therapy get better quicker and suffer fewer side effects. But from an economic
perspective, compliance works best on expensive chronic disorders like
diabetes, asthma, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Compliance to therapy
helps keeps these patients' conditions in check, keeps patients out of the
doctors' offices and emergency rooms, and reduces costly hospital stays. The
end result of increasing compliance to treatment is faster recovery and fewer
complications, thus lowering the overall health care bill.
Harold E. Cohen, R. Ph.
Editor-in-Chief
To comment on this article, contact editor@uspharmacist.com.