2/22/26

Over the past few years, the price of houses have been on the rise. What was just “200,000 back in my day” has now turned into a whopping 1.2 million dollars. However, this inflated boom can be similarly seen in the rise of other prices, particularly in the medical field. In the recent years, the price of basic items like medication and medical procedures have risen to soaring costs while the average American feels less and less likely to be able to afford it. This begs the question: why has our healthcare system become like this?

To answer generally: capitalism.

America was once the land of freedom, opportunity, and a chance for anyone to make it big. Reality is, that was only in the past. In the status quo, mega-billionaires virtually hold all the wealth while the bottom 50% of the nation hold less than 10% of all wealth. Large money-making schemes dig into the money of the poor, selling necessary objectives such as healthcare at inflated prices because they know that the citizens need the money. When a company introduces a new medication, they’re often the only agency in the market, so the price can be set as high as they want. This leads many large institutions to gain large profits just because they can. Although I may be sounding like a crazy anti-government lady right now, research begs to differ. The method that pharmaceutical companies use to maintain their perfect monopoly comes in a couple of ways:

1. Patent laws—governments allow companies to charge high prices and reject further development of the same medication from another company, reducing all competition. For example, if Company A made Drug A, then Company B could not develop Drug A.
2. Lobbying—this connects back to patent laws. The healthcare industry often engages in lobbying, resulting in stronger patent laws that benefit themselves.
3. “Nichebuster” strategies—companies develop extremely niche/less used drugs and require very high prices, shifting the focus away from broader problems and focusing on smaller ones.
4. Economic cartels—similarly to a monopoly, a cartel agrees to set a very high price because there’s no other competition in the market—except there is. A group of companies that dominate the industry come together secretly and agree to mutually set the prices high so that they can all earn money.

These are just four examples of how companies are using the everyday consumer to generate more revenue for themselves. There are countless other methods that the general public may not even know about!

Now lets take a look at some actual costs and fees:

According to a RAND report on February 1, 2024, US companies charge 2.78 times more for drugs on average compared to 33 other major countries. Yikes, that’s quite a large gap! Additionally, across the OECD countries, US accounted for 62% of the profit generated but only 24% of the actual volume, meaning that agencies are overcharging way more compared to other countries. With all of this considered, we can see a clear link back to capitalism. There are less restraints and control because capitalism allows for a “free market” with less government regulation. Large business owners can therefore control the entire market within the palm of their hand. The drive for labor exploitation and the dehumanization of people as a mere wallet has led people to paying money for a drug that’s highly overprices.

But secondly, lets look at the actual use of these drugs. Are all these medications we take really necessary? Did we have to pay that much money for a simple pill? According to Katella from Yale Medicine on August 31, 2020, the answer is a definite no. In fact, many of those taking additional medication are harmed, as overdosing on an unnecessary pill leads to 1.3 million emergency department visits and 350,000 hospitalizations a year. Companies can profit off this pain, giving more pills to people who didn’t need the pills in the first place, and the cycles of deadly overdose continues. In the past, people stayed healthy with frequent workouts and a better lifestyle, but as humans eat more questionable items and develop more stress (which has physical effects on the human body), we see diseases like obesity and diabetes becoming major problems. In most of these cases, doctors simply hand over a pill with little recommendation on how to actually mitigate the issue at hand. These actions lead to more and more hospitalizations, ER visits, and eventual deaths. But, these pills earn money, don’t they? That’s exactly why companies continue to sell such deadly solutions that are a wolf in sheep’s clothing—so they themselves can generate more revenue.

Overall, capitalism has led companies to abuse their overreach in economic liberation, which has led to multiple issues consisting of a misuse in overcharging medications that aren’t even necessary in the first place. The average American is suffering, and we need a wake-up call.