Brooklynn G. Harvey
RHE 306
30 September 2020
Should Prescription Drug Prices Be Lower?
Madeline Twomey a special assistant for Health Policy at the Center for American
Progress and Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of AARP, AARP Bulletin, feels that prescription drug prices
are way too high and lowering the drug prices should have been done a long time ago. While,
Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Aureus Asset Management, Karen Firestone and Minal R.
Patel, and Joe Gerald, Associate Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education, University of
Michigan and Associate Professor & Program Director, Public Health Policy & Management.
University of Arizona, feel that it would be very difficult to bring drug prices down. Jenkins
states that that many families are struggling with the prices of their prescriptions, which they
later end up having to give them up so they can bring food to the table. (Jenkins, P1) Twomey
can agree because she states that people who are not able to afford these prescriptions are not
able to treat their "complex, chronic, or life-threatening conditions, such as autoimmune diseases
and many cancers." (Twomey, P2) Some people can't live without their medications but aren't
able to afford them. Firestone states that, yes prices are higher and some can't afford them but no
one really sees how much research and production really cost. (Firestone, P2) Patel and Gerald
can agree with Firestone because pharmaceutical manufacturers "engage in drug research.
development, evaluation, licensing and marketing." (Patel and Gerald, P3) They state that
companies spend a lot of money on the production of drugs. In recent years, several competing
viewpoints have emerged about the high prices of prescription drugs. All of this debate raises an
important question, should drug prices be lower? People who believe that prices should be lower
tend to say that many people of lower classes or seniors can't afford their drugs. On the other
hand, people who believe that it is difficult to lower those prices reply that people who are
buying the drugs don't know how much research and planning cost. Also, those who claim that
prescription prices need to be lower think that the lowering of drug prices have been overdue and
often care about how it is affecting the buyers.
The question that has arrived from our stakeholders is whether or not prices of
prescription drugs should be lower and if so, how does that affect those companies. Many people
believe that prescription prices are way too high. Madeline Twomey, for example says that we
should lower the cost because the drug prices continue soar and Americans want a change
(Twomey, P2) And Jo Ann Jenkins similarly says, "that more families continue to struggle to pay
for their prescriptions." (Jenkins, P1) Twomey, however cites different reasons in support of her
claim. She says, "That companies enjoy monopolistic market power and set prices as high as
they can," while Jenkins says, "many families are having to choose between buying food and
buying medicine." (Twomey, P2 Jenkins, P1) Nonetheless,