Prescription drug prices in the United States

Okay kiddo, so you've probably heard about medicine that doctors give you when you're sick, right? These are called prescription drugs. And in the United States, they can be very expensive. But why is that?

Well, it's kind of like going to the store to buy a toy. The toy costs money to make, and the people who make it want to make a profit by selling it. The people who make prescription drugs are companies called pharmaceutical companies. They spend a lot of money to develop new drugs and get them approved by the government so that they can sell them to people.

But here's where it gets tricky. In the United States, the government doesn't regulate how much pharmaceutical companies can charge for their drugs. This means that they can charge whatever price they want, and people have to pay it if they need the medicine to get better.

Now, there's more to this story too. One reason that drugs can be so expensive is because of all the money that pharmaceutical companies spend on research and development. They have to pay scientists and doctors to do tests and create new medicines. This can be very expensive, so they charge high prices for their drugs to make up for it.

Another reason is that there are also middlemen involved in the process, like insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). They negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to get lower prices for drugs, but sometimes they don't pass those savings on to patients.

So, even though it might seem unfair that people in the United States have to pay so much for their prescription drugs, there are a lot of factors involved in the high prices. But fortunately, there are also people working on finding ways to make these drugs more affordable for everyone.