Medical

accessibility
and prices
around the
world
By: Evan Kruck

Why I picked this topic

I picked this topic because medication and health care has had a big influence in my
life. Ive had medical issues all of my life. When I was younger, I started to get issues
like seasonal allergies and had trouble breathing. Then I got food allergies and now
my migraines. I would never know about my issues unless I had the medical help in
the U.S and my health. I am very grateful for everything.

Prices
Prices vary a lot on where you are and what type of government you have. But its
not just that, it also depends on the type of medication. Prices vary because all
medications are different and how much it costs to process it.

Prices cont
The United States spends the most amount of money per capita on medication than
everyone else. This is because our health care is very expensive. Compared to
Finland that is a $4,972 difference.

Prices cont.
The United States of America (according to a poll taken in 2011) spends about
$8,508 per capita each year. Compared to the other 10 countries on there, we are
the worst. The reason why we are last is because the other countries on there have
the best health care in the world.

Accessibility
Once again, accessibility depends on where you live and what type of government
you have. But when it comes to accessibility, there needs to be doctors to prescribe
it and to help treat for it. Like in Haiti, they dont have much medication because
there government has been stealing from them for years.

Haiti
In Haiti, they have many issues involving health care. After the catastrophic
earthquake in 2010, there medical buildings were destroyed. Supporters came in
and helped medically. But these people wont give medical help back to the
government because of the past.

After the earthquake

In 2011, there was a test done to see around how much medical support they had.
The result was really sad and disappointing. For generic types of medicine that
where either public, nonprofit, or private, the accessibility was 20%, 37%, 24%,
and 23%. This was out of 163 medicine outlets in the country of Haiti. Because
there is such a little amount of drugs and medication, the prices of the drugs were
way higher than what they usually are. For certain medications like antibiotics, it
would take multiple days of wage to be able to pay for it.

Work Cited
https://www.express-scripts.com/art/pdf/kap19Medications.pdf
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/2014/jun/us-health-system-ranks-last
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3868824/
http://haitipartners.org/about-us/haiti-statistics/