“According to the FDA, more than 2 million serious adverse drug reactions occur each year, and adverse drug reactions are the fourth-leading cause of death, responsible for about 100,000 deaths each year.” – USA Today, March 19, 2008.
Due to the current rapidly evolving global economy, as a nation we are now experiencing an ever-increasing threat to our industry. Our pay scale is considerably higher than that of most developing countries, and due to the rapidly increasing cost of employees’ healthcare, we are losing our competitive advantage. Then, as third world countries continue developing their technology, that threat will just escalate, and thus must be addressed. If not, and if the current trend is allowed to continue, our economy will decline each year, until the problem is finally resolved.
Our society spends billions of dollars on employees’ healthcare, a cost that continues to escalate at an ever-increasing rate. The basic problem stems from the high cost of the insurance premiums for employees, although, the source of the problem is the increasing the number of medications patients are being placed on – partly due to direct advertising of drugs to the public. Not only is the increasing cost of these premiums becoming a burden to employers, but the end result is also reflected in employees’ reduced productivity, as well as more time off for sick leave. And the fault is our current flawed healthcare system – not the employees.