Medicaid Coverage for Indigents: Addressing the High Cost of Prescription Drugs

Introduction

Health care for the indigents, individuals who are monetarily impeded and lack simple access to medical coverage, has become a noteworthy issue in society. The indigents find it hard to get prescribed medication. As a result, there is a need for Medicaid restorative inclusion program for the needy individuals that gives medication coverage to the poor people to help the poor Americans facing the high cost of prescription drugs. According to Heyward et al. (2018), in every three visits in health care, two ends with a prescription being written. Access to these drugs improves the patients' conditions as well as the quality of life while helping to prevent the cost of medical problems. However, there are several Americans who are unable to afford the needed prescription medication which is a concern to the general public due to the severe threat of chronic conditions to the indigents as well as the public health with over 46 million Americans not having health insurance (Morgan, Law, Daw, Abraham, & Martin, 2015). Studies show that one out of ten uninsured people in low-income families. People with low incomes as well as the old suffer from a chronic condition that requires medication, yet they face economic burden. The indigents lack of finances leads to poor quality of life with most of them taking less of the drug that has been prescribed by the doctor. As a result, it has become a concern hence the need to ensure sufficient prescription coverage, especially for the indigent population. Lowering the cost of prescription coverage have been found to reduce the severe health complications to increase the visits in the emergency department. Since the American nation needs a better prescription coverage for the indigents, identifying the determinants of drug coverage as well as investigating the impact of drug coverage on drug expenditures will help the indigents have access to the health care thus obtaining the proper treatment.

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Drug Prescription Coverage

Effective prescription medication for the indigents will benefit both the society as well as the healthcare providers and the pharmacies. Therefore, there is the need for innovativeness in medical technology to improve healthcare outcomes as well as the quality of life through drug prescription coverage to reduce surgeries and invasive treatments. The rapid growth of prescription drugs costs has affected the indigents, thus leading to an increase in indigent population with chronic conditions hence need for long term medication. The indigents were lacking drug coverage face a more significant financial burden due to high drug expenditures. The factors associated with drug spending shows the need for effective programs that would play a role in drug utilization decision for the indigents (Huh, Rice, & Ettner, 2018). The healthcare programs should help in reducing the costs of prescription drugs without selection bias. Insurance has been found useful for the prescription coverage for reducing the prescription drug coverage costs, thus increasing the use of any drug by the indigents.

Programs offered by the pharmaceutical companies should be based on providing free or low cost of prescription drugs for the indigents. Through financial assistance for the indigents, there is a high chance of helping them comply with recommended drugs, thus obtaining better outcomes. With over two million Americans not able to afford the needed medicines, the program should provide the medication assistance through the voluntary of the healthcare providers without limiting the prescription drug coverage while demonstrating the financial need based on the set income (McHugh, Nielsen, & Weiss, 2015). With the standard enrolment process, the healthcare providers in the pharmaceutical companies require to diagnosis and obtain the medical needs of the patient. The health and drug insurance coverage should be allowed for the indigents to assist the Medicare beneficiaries lacking the supplemental drug coverage.

With the high demand for prescription coverage, many indigents avoid the financial burden associated with high drug costs of medication as well as insurance against the illness. Although the Americans differ in the number of risks confronting the chronic conditions, the indigents suffer from the diseases due to lack of finances to eliminate the disease (Lin et al., 2018). As a result, the indigents only purchase the drug coverage when at high risk-averse. The prescription coverage demand is based on various factors, including the price with the indigents expected to obtain drug coverage. The choice of drug coverage is influenced by health insurance policies that provide prescription coverage for indigent population beneficiaries. As a result, prescription coverage requires a Medicare plan that includes drug benefits to the indigents.

On the other hand, the demand for drugs for the indigent's increase leads to the decrease in the price of the prescription coverage. When the indigents are in poor health condition, the prescription of the medicines gets higher. As a result, the prescription drug coverage should pay for the medication cost for the indigents to reduce the high costs of prescription that the individual pay for the drugs at healthcare facilities. The pocket price of prescription drugs should be lowered to the indigents due to the high demand for the drug coverage with increased chronic conditions. The need for prescription drugs should increase as the price of the medicines falls for sufficient prescription drug coverage for the indigents. The travel cost, the time spent at the health care as well as the patient's condition should be considered for sufficient prescription coverage (Morgan & Boothe, 2016). The supply of healthcare services, including the hospitals, physicians, as well as the pharmacists in the local areas, should be increased for the effective prescription use by the indigents. Application of conceptual model underlying the health status as well as the individual preference that influences the beneficiary choice of prescription coverage should be considered to enhance the purchase of drug coverage while correlating with the level of demand. Estimation approach ensures appropriate identification of the variables that influence the drug coverage decisions for the indigent hence correct selection without bias.

Impact of Prescription Drug Coverage for Indigents

The prescription coverage has an impact on the indigents' drug utilization, including drug use as well as the conditional use of drugs. As a result, prescription coverage has led to the increased unconditional drug expenditures with the increased number of indigents in need of a prescription. Unobservable characteristics that lead to the patient purchase of the drug coverage has led to the high drug expenditure based on the adverse health status as well as a high preference for medication treatment. Prescription coverage has been found to play a role controlling as well as treating the chronic conditions. The prescription coverage in the United States has led to the 9.6% prescription use hence annual drug spending of about $462 per individual (Kesselheim, Avorn, & Sarpatwari, 2016). The effects of prescription coverage on drugs have positively contributed to the physicians prescribing practices while influencing the indigent coverage status, including the coverage prescription of drug therapy as well as less costly drugs. The decisions of the consumers of the prescription drugs have affected the indigents by clarifying the drug use with the coverage indicating that people prescription coverage appropriately receive medication treatment. Although drug coverage has led to increased drug spending, the indigent chronic conditions have been found as the significant factor that determines the prescription of drugs, thus high expenditures.

The prescription coverage has also led to adverse selection based on the simultaneous equation approach for the Medicare beneficiaries. The concern over the drug expenditure for the indigents shows the need for the self-selection purchasing of the drug coverage (McHugh et al., 2015). The estimates show the drug coverage for the conditional drug expenditure with the implied implementation of the active programs to help the indigents afford the prescription coverage.

Indigent Assistance Programs for Prescription Coverage

The prescription coverage for indigents has become a concern due to the lack of support both financially and physically. Therefore, there is a need for assistance through various programs for adequate access for eligible individuals and families. Numerous pharmaceutical companies have should there interest in helping the indigents in accessing the needed medicines based on the patents savings at the pharmacy counter. With most indigents having less income for financial stability, they lack prescription drug coverage. Therefore, the pharmaceutical company's introduction of cards ensures the patient's partnership for prescription assistance. The organization also launches practical grassroots efforts that help in raising awareness of prescription assistance programs, thus making the enrolment for the discount drug card programs for the indigents (Huh et al., 2018). On the other hand, the National Association of Countries has promoted the prescription discount to help the indigents to access healthcare. By offering free cards to the indigents, the program has improved patient participation in retail pharmacy.

Significant advances have been made to ensure the detection of chronic conditions with a better understanding of the diseases to improve prevention strategies. The advances have led to the increased care for the chronic conditions among the indigents which had been barred by severe financial burden. With more expensive therapies adopted for standard care, the prescription coverage has led to the reduced cost of treating the chronic conditions (Heyward et al., 2018). The growth in the price of healthcare has been found to exceed the overall growth of the economy due to an increasing number of Americans who cannot afford the economic burden of healthcare. However, the advances in medical technology contribute the active treatment with the prescription coverage given a priority. Prescription coverage for the chronic conditions has led to the categorization of the drug in the hospital for adequate healthcare.

The health insurance programs in the United States has led to the market reforms, thus protecting the patient through the affordable care act that ensures the millions of indigents without health care coverage. Through the health insurance program, the prescription cost has reduced with the burden of paying the medical bills among the indigents significantly reduced. As a result of the health insurance program, there is high adherence to medications hence quality health care as well as increased use of hospitals. Patients with chronic conditions, therefore, have to acquire insurance which is associated with effective healthcare services as well as reduced treatment expenses (Lin et al., 2018). The pharmaceutical companies have adequately responded to the challenges of high-cost medication for the indigent population lacking the prescription coverage through the implementation of effective programs that supply free medicines. The pharmaceutical company, therefore, provide assistance that is required for resolving the indigent population issues of lack of prescription drug coverage as well as the ineligibility for the public support. The rising cost of health care for indigent patients has become a burden to the hospital. Therefore, the pharmacy department requires reimbursement for the pharmaceuticals to assist ineffective health care for needy patients while ma...