Millions of people across America battle illness and disease each and every day. Many of them take prescription medication to treat the illness itself or the effects of the illness and these can get rather costly, especially because it’s often not just one type of medication that needs to be taken on a daily basis. Some people need multiple medications just to keep themselves going and sadly, there are a shockingly large number of people who simply cannot afford the medication that could potentially save their lives. So instead, they either don’t take them or the taxpayers foot the bill.
But did you know that there are prescription medications that go unused and end up getting destroyed every day? Well there are! Nursing homes and other similar places get a 30 day supply of prescription medications for each patient, but new and unused portions cannot be sent back to the pharmacy. Instead, it gets wasted and destroyed. The video below tells the story about what happens and I have to say, I found it quite shocking and honestly disgusting!
Not only are sick people dying because they don’t have the money or means to pay for these overpriced pills, but our environment and health is being harmed because of these disposed medications. The infographic below sheds some light on these harmful affects.
- 1 in 3 water samples contains hormones widely used in pharmaceuticals.
- Every pound of medicine that we redistribute prevents up to 30,000 pounds of waste from the production of new medicine.
- 70% of waterways used for drinking water in 25 states had traces of one or more pharmaceuticals.
- Medical waste incinerators are America’s third largest source of dioxins, a highly toxic pollutant that can cause cancer and harm the immune system.
SIRUM wants to help though and they’ve got a great plan to make access to medication affordable in the US. They want to get these unopened, unused and otherwise wasted medications into the hands of the people who need them by getting pharmacies, hospitals, nursing home and similar places to donate their extras. It’s a better option that simply destroying these insanely expensive medications that are still good and could potentially save someone’s life!
Not to mention, the lack of access to medicine not only affects our environment and health, but our economy as well.
- Nearly 1 in 4 working age Americans cannot afford the prescriptions they need to stay healthy.
- More than 1 in 2 bankruptcies involve substantial healthcare debt.
- Over $18 billion spent every year on avoidable ER visits, many of which could be preempted with sufficient access to medication.
- Patients with heart disease who report cutting back on medicine due to costs are 50% more likely to experience events like stroke and heart attack.
Share your story and make a difference!
On March 6th, SIRUM will be approaching US Congress with the hope to influence the future of healthcare in the US but they need our help to make an impact. They are encouraging us to share our stories about a time that we or the people we love have been unable to afford medications that our Doctor has prescribed to treat our illnesses and diseases. But we need to act fast because the deadline for submitting your story is February 28th!
