Essay --

The United States of America accounts for only 5% of the worlds population, yet as a nation, we devour over 50% of the worlds pharmaceutical medication and around 80% of the worlds prescription narcotics (American Addict). The increasing take away for prescription medication in America has evoked a national health crisis in which the government and big business benefit at the disbursement of the American public.(II) The enacting of Medicare Part D in 2006 only helped to fuel Americas hunger for prescription medication. In 2003, President George W. Bush announced and sign the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (also known as the Medicare Modernization Act, or MMA) on December 8th. The roughly $400 billion dollar measure was marketed to the American public as something that will provide care for the millions of senior citizens who, at the time, were struggling to afford prescription medication. This was the largest development of Medicare since 1965, whi ch is when the program was initially created, and gave hope to those privation for positive medical reform. According to title XI of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the most significant change will be the affordability of prescription drugs by implementing the importation of drugs from Canada, along with necessary safety measures, in order to lessen the cost (United States Congress, 832). For those who were in retirement homes and lacked a steady income, the affordability of drugs was often a decision making factor in the decision to seek medical attention and the idea that those individuals ceased to live simply because they lacked the funds tugged at the heartstrings of many Americans. Although the Medicare Moderniza... ...pecially with the use of DTC advertising, to such a wide range of afflictions greatly increased their consumer base, but one of them proved to be deadly. In 1999, four years after Lilly sent study results to the U.S . fodder and Drug Administration showing Zyprexa didnt alleviate dementia symptoms in older patients, it began marketing the drug to those very people, according to documents unsealed in insurance broker suits against the company for overpayment.(Applbaum, 248). Soon after it began to be used in those suffering from dementia, there were studies produces that showed an increase in death rate among elderly patients taking Zyprexa. In January of 2009, Eli Lilly and Company, who produced the drug, ended up settling the lawsuit and agreed to pay $1.415 billion which was one of the biggest corporate settlements in the history of pharmaceutical companies (Applbaum, 237).