CP Prospectus

The rise of America’s death rate is associated to the lack of a health care system

established on equity and efficiency. Moreover, countless Americans are dying due to the unjust

and overpriced pharmaceutical drugs they need to survive. There is no valid excuse anymore for

the inaction of finding the prescription for lower drug prices. Access to affordable drugs that

one’s life depends on is a human right. Health care is a human right.

Currently, the only existing advanced economy that has yet to offer universal health care

is the United States. A stifling 28 million Americans are uninsured and 44 million are

underinsured, which means over ten percent of their earned incomes are spent on health care

expenses with out-of-pocket money (Hsiao). While the Medicare Prescription Drug,

Improvement and Modernization Act passed in 2003 successfully provided drug benefits for

senior citizens, it also prohibited Medicare from making any negotiations with pharmaceutical

companies to lower their drug prices (Allen). Furthermore, major pharmaceutical companies

have no intention to reduce prices so long as their patents remain protected. The strong patent

protection received by drug companies in America continues to be abused, leaving many people

hopeless to find a solution to this broken system (Charles). The exorbitant costs of drugs leads to

many Americans, an average three out of ten adults, skipping doses, leaving prescriptions

unfilled, or taking non-prescription drugs instead (Hancock). It is disgraceful to live in a nation

where the average drug costs nearly four times more than the combined cost of drugs in eleven

other countries. Americans should not have to spend up to seven times more on prescription

drugs than other developed countries (Waxman). Americans should not have to die because they

live in a society where the pharmaceutical industry was constructed by crookedness.

Annotated Bibliography

Source 1:

Allen, Leslie. "Prescription Drug Costs." ​CQ Researcher​, 20 May 2016, pp. 457-80,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2016052000.

The well established staff writer for ​National Geographic ​and author who specializes in

science, Leslie Allen, claims that there is an immense divide over who to blame for the broken

health care system in America. Allen explains how on the one hand, drug manufacturers raise the

prices of drugs to contribute those funds to research and development, but on the other hand

most of the money they earn goes to marketing and lobbying, rather than towards research

advancements. One notable feature that sets this article apart from others is the abundance of

multimodal elements within the journal. The journal provides plenty of visuals that appeal to

emotions as well as logic. This source will be useful to my research because it provides an in

depth overview of increasing drug price patterns throughout the years, as well as myriad

counter-argument statements that I will include to enhance my credibility and enrich my ethos.

Source 2:

Charles, Shamard. “No End in Sight to Rising Drug Prices, Study Finds.” ​NBCNews.com​,

NBCUniversal News Group, 31 May 2019,

www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/no-end-sight-rising-drug-prices-study-finds-n

1012181.
Annotated Bibliography

Dr. Shamard Charles, senior health journalist for NBC News with a medical degree from

Brown University, alleges that there is no near solution for the increase of drug prices due to the

fact that America provides major pharmaceutical companies with strong patent protections that

they in turn abuse. Charles further states that this upward trend in drug prices will most likely

continue rather than slow down or stop entirely. This source not only contains data charts and

videos regarding the issue, it also successfully includes statements from other doctors and

politicians that back the writer’s claims. Using statements made by other researchers and

evidence from ongoing data analysis will strengthen my claim that the health care system is

indeed broken because of the corrupt for-profit drug companies that take advantage of the

liberties America provides them with.

Source 3:

Hancock, Jay. “Americans Ready To Crack Down On Drug Prices That Force Some To

Skip Doses.” ​Kaiser Health News​, Google, 1 Mar. 2019,

www.google.com/amp/s/khn.org/news/americans-ready-to-crack-down-on-drug-pric

es-that-force-some-to-skip-doses/amp/.

Senior Correspondent for Kaiser Health News, Jay Hancock, postulates​ that the issue of

expensive drugs is wide-scale and places a strain on household budgets, employer budgets and

the government’s budget. Furthermore, Hancock provides statistics that offer many contradicting

viewpoints, such as one poll that indicates only three percent trust in drug companies to price

their drugs fairly and another poll that suggests two-thirds oppose government intervention and

negotiation on drug prices. This article is very interesting in relationship to my other sources
Annotated Bibliography

because it provides a plethora of polls conducted to represent how the general public feels

towards this issue. By containing viewpoints from a general audience, as provided by this source,

I will be able to expand on why others should care about this issue while also presenting why

others do not care to further develop my claims.

Source 4:

Hsiao, William. “What Other Countries Can—and Can’t— Teach the United States .” ​How

to Fix American Health Care,​ vol. 99, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 96–106.,

doi:http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=140267225&

site=ehost-live&scope=site.

William Hsiao​, the K.T. Li Research Professor of Economics in Department of Health

Policy and Management and Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University,

argues that Americans pay more for less within the broken health care system. Hsiao’s journal

stands out the most compared to my other sources because unlike the other sources, Hsiao

himself provides a multitude of possible solutions to fix the health care system. He proposes the

most effective and politically achievable option would be to increase the role of both the federal

and state level governments in regulating the price of drugs. This journal will enhance my paper

because it will develop some of the many practical approaches to resolving this social and

political problem that I have come up with thus far.

Source 5:
Annotated Bibliography

Waxman, Henry A. “Lower Drug Costs Now.” ​Health Affairs Blog,​ Health Affairs, 4 Oct.

2019,

www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20191003.118206/full/.

Henry A. Waxman, former Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Energy and

Commerce Committee in his role as U.S. representative for California's 33rd district, asserts ​that

it is a national disgrace to live in a country with such low life expectancy, high infant mortality

and high drug prices. Waxman elaborates on the toxicity of the health care system by exposing

pharmaceutical companies for spending their profits earned on lobbying and marketing, rather

than for research like they claim to be. This source will be extremely useful to my research

because it provides great historical context that centralizes on the root of this issue. It will also

add great credibility to my writing since the article was written by a politician who worked to

create a more just system for a total of 35 years.