Pharmaceuticals and Job Lock-Out Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Pharmaceuticals and Job Lock-Out - Assignment Example Also, cost of health care is projected to rise from the current $2.1 trillion yearly to $4 trillion in the next 10 years (Callahan, 2008). These escalating costs are significant contributors to the rising number of uninsured people. Business entities are finding it difficult to cater for their employees’ health benefits. The current statistics show that about 61% of employers afford to pay for their employees insurance as compared to a decade ago which was about 70%. Also, employers that give their employees the health benefits are using co-payments and deductibles as a means of reducing their expenses thus forces employees to pay more. The uninsured lot that is about 15% is at a risk of both health-wise and financially. Nevertheless, the high health cost currently threatens everyone, even those in Medicaid and Medicare programs (Callahan, 2008). Hitherto, though there is great awareness among people on the risks of rising costs, this problem has not compelled the attention of the public, media or presidents with the pressure of the uninsured (this is true irrespective of the recent opinions polls showing its rising popularity). There are quite developments of strategies to achieve universal care, but not much has been done in cost control since it is implicitly unpopular. This is the case since by controlling the costs, it means others will have to give something up and agree to something different (Callahan, 2008). Pharmaceuticals play a major role in providing medical resources for cure, treatment and prevention. Patents rights and rights to intellectual property develop obstacles to competition and manipulate pricing. There are some recent policies that try to limit access to certain types of pharmaceuticals. One of such policy is proposed by the Obama administration. The policy restricts the range of insurance plan on the various drug classes. This proposed policy is receiving strong opposition from both drug companies and patient