Critical Analysis Report

Synopsis Summary:

"Addressing Healthcare Inequities in Israel by Eliminating Prescription Drug Copayments" is an article that was published by the The American Journal of Managed Care. This article mainly focused on the concept of whether or not prescription drug copayments are very high in cost. If these prescription drugs are indeed high in cost, then individuals must make the decision whether or not they can afford their medicine. The costs of prescription drugs rose dramatically, in Israel, after the National Health Insurance law was passed in 1995. Therefore, in order to recognize whether or not copayments were a factor in the lack of individuals taking their prescribed medications, a study was performed. The study's participants were approximately sixty-five years of age, had a low socio-economic status, suffered from chronic disease (s), and were not properly taking their prescribed medication.

General Theme:

In my opinion, I felt that this article focused on individuals who had a low socio-economic status and were victims of chronic diseases. Due to the fact that these particular individuals had a low income, they were not able to purchase their prescribed medication(s) because of its high cost of prescription drug copayments. One of the probable solutions, to this issue, was the implementation of a subsidized copayment program. Therefore, a study was performed to recognize if individuals with chronic diseases would take their prescribed medications more frequently and/or regularly. If this probable solution was not proved to be true, many of these individuals would have chronic diseases that would continually worsen. Especially diseases such as blood pressure, serum glycated hemoglobin levels, and lipoprotein cholesterol, due to financial issues.

Point of View:

The author felt that there was a negative connection between prescription drug copayments and the use of prescribed medications. The individuals that lacked taking their medication (s) were those mainly suffering from chronic illnesses, due to the fact that they are usually higher in cost than other prescribed medications. The chronic illnesses that were focused on were blood pressure, serum glycated hemoglobin levels, and lipoprotein cholesterol. I believe that this article was very objective and factual for several reasons. It was objective and factual because it stated the problem (underuse of prescribed medications for chronic diseases), possible reasoning as to why it is a problem (copayments), statistics, study design (prospective cohort study), methods, results, and its conclusion.

Issue Analysis:

The first issue, of this article, is that there are many individuals who do not take their prescribed medications because they are unable to pay the copayment expense. Second, individuals, who cannot afford their healthcare/copayments, are at a higher risk for their diseases (especially chronic diseases) to become worse. Third, copayment programs were implemented