Diabetes Medicinal Price Trends

Source: ADA

Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices

 What overall trends are visible in medicinal prices? 

The article published in The American Diabetes Association titled “The Cost of Diabetes” demonstrates this economic principle by showing how prices for Diabetes are increasing exponentially, prices for Diabetes change depending on factors like gender, and Diabetes costs extend past patients, including indirectly affecting other businesses.

                 First, the American Diabetes Association discusses the trends and statistics regarding overall diabetes costs. They talk about the increase in costs between two separate studies, saying that “The estimated total economic cost of diagnosed diabetes in 2017 is $327 billion, a 26% increase from our previous estimate of $245 billion.” This nearly one hundred billion dollar difference is in the span of five years, showing a massive growth in the costs.

                 Next, the ADA discusses some of the trends within these costs. They talk about many of the factors that affect individual costs of diabetes. One such factor is gender. The article is cited saying “Total... health expenditures are higher among men than women ($10,060 vs. $9,110).” They don’t expand on reasons behind this cost gap, but the thousand dollar difference shows that individual pricing may vary, even though overall trends are still increasing. Costs for one diabetic are purely dependent on things like genetics, gender, etc.

                 Finally, the article offers an unconventional way of looking at prices for Diabetes. The article cites many factors that are indirectly affected by the disease, including but not limited to “increased absenteeism and reduced productivity while at work for the employed population… inability to work as a result of disease-related disability… and lost productive capacity due to early mortality.” This quote offers the reader a new way of looking at costs of a disease, something that can highly affect the prices of the medicine we use to treat it. The site also uses specific prices after each factor, in order to help readers understand the impact that this disease can have on not only those that have it but the economy as a whole.

 In my next blog post I will research: What are the current regulations regarding medicinal prices?