Medicines Should Be Made Free

1. Rebuttals Pro always gives some examples of poor people suffering with disease and states the argument. But, the fact is that less than 10 percent of the world’s population is living in extreme poverty.[1] Pro is taking one extreme example and stating the arguments; and one should remember that the whole world cannot be painted with one single brush! So, essentially, Pro is wanting the remaining 90 percent to stop paying for medicines (even though they have the capacity to do so) for the 10 percent only, thus the field of research cannot be promoted. Pro is simply neglecting and avoiding the simple fact that medicines can’t be improved or produced without there public paying for them! If the medicines aren’t produced, how does one expect to sell them? I repeat what I had written earlier, there is nothing called free lunch! Pro argued that we still get good quality medicines free of cost. Why? Because pharmaceutical industries charge their medicines and people like you and me pay for them. It is that simple. Pro argues further, naming some hospitals in Chennai, which give medicines free of cost. Again, this argument is getting repetitive, these hospitals are even present in the first place because the people pay for their medication. Let us assume everyone is given medicines and medication free of cost. Do you think hospitals will ever persist in the future? 2.Huge Expenses and Salaries The whole business of building hospitals costs a lot of money. It is not simple to build a hospitals and clinics in both cities and rural areas without having a lot of money. And to add to all these costs, there are millions of doctors and nurses to pay salaries for. The pharmaceutical industry is a big industry which makes both profits and losses each year. It makes a lot of medicines each year with its research which cost both sun and earth. Let’s make an analysis of the consequences which occur if medical care and medicines are made free. The pharmaceutical industry makes 300 billion dollars a year.[2] There are approximately 10 to 15 million doctors in the world [3], and there are roughly 2 nurses for every doctor, thus making about 35 million healthcare specialists across the world. And the salary for the doctors is roughly $200000 per doctor and nurse, annually.[4] That is 600 billion for paying just the doctors and nurses. And for building a hospital it costs 800 million per hospital in the world [5]; and since there are 16500 hospitals in the world [6], the cost for building these hospitals was totally 132 billion dollars, and one should not forget the money spent for maintaining them! And the cost for making a new drug is 350 million dollars.[7] Not to forget the iterations the researchers have to make in their drugs and the salaries for the researchers themselves, which costs a bomb. How are we getting this balance between the costs and providing medicines? By paying for them, will the pharmaceutical industries provide hospitals and other medications. I just can’t imagine the horrors and losses which will take place if medicines are made free for all. Sources: [1] http://www.worldbank.org... [2] http://www.who.int... [3] http://www.ask.com... [4] http://www.payscale.com... [5] https://www.quora.com... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org... [7] http://www.forbes.com...