We could not have said it better ourselves, check out this lead-in paragraph in a recent Huffington Post story:
It is morally wrong that in the richest country in the world, at the richest point in our history, millions of Americans don’t take the medicines their doctors prescribe because they can’t afford them. Americans are facing a drug affordability crisis. Even among those with health insurance coverage, nearly one-third struggle to meet out-of-pocket costs, including the skyrocketing costs of critical and lifesaving prescription drugs.
The article goes on to point out that the problem of high drug costs make Americans poorer and sicker as they are forced to forgo or delay taking medication, or not adhering to the medication regime as prescribed.
While Big Pharma claims that the reason for the high pricing is based on a need to recoup research and development costs, they call this out for the lie that it is: Pharmaceutical research and development is largely subsidized by taxpayer dollars, with little risk to drug companies. Indeed, pharmaceutical companies, which are collectively worth hundreds of billions, have extremely comfortable profit margins. On average, their net profits are greater than those of any other industry. The truth is, high drug prices are the cost of drug corporation greed and nothing else. Thank you, Alex Lawson and Stephanie Connolly, for bringing the truth forward in this critical high stakes debate over lowering prescription drug prices. Americans want and need safe and affordable prescription drugs, now.