Many of you have probably heard about the increase in EpiPen
prices recently. An EpiPen is a device that can be used to deliver a dose of
epinephrine (adrenaline) to a person having a serious allergic reaction to keep
things in check until emergency medical attention can be accessed. Many people
with food allergies, allergies to bee stings, etc. carry these with them and
they can potentially be life-saving.
As I understand the situation, the price has risen as one
company has developed a virtual monopoly on the product. Essentially, this is
the free market at work. There is a lot of demand and one company has the
supply with little competition so the price has gone up. In addition, more
people now have insurance plans with high deductibles and co-pays so patients
are seeing more of that cost themselves than they used to. This has led to a
lot of publicity about the high cost of this commonly-prescribed medication.
One could argue about whose fault that is and how it should be fixed.This got me to thinking about people in similar situations with less commonly used treatments. There are patients who pay thousands of dollars a year out-of-pocket for treatment for disorders which most people have never heard of. They would be delighted to have the $600-a-year problem of EpiPen users. But since their disorders are uncommon and not many people use the medications they use, there is not a large group of patients to catch the ear of politicians and the media. And the treatments are often not covered by insurance at all.
So they end up paying large sums for treatments that are almost certainly not that expensive to make and are just as important to treat their disorders as an EpiPen is for a person with a serious allergy. I don’t know the answer to the problem, but I think it is important for people to know it exists.
