At least 27 million Americans have no access to healthcare at all, because they lack health insurance. In addition, polls have shown one in four Americans who take medications struggle to afford them. Unlike in the UK, where patients may have a modest out-of-pocket payment determined by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, American patients have sometimes enormous costs in the US. Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than anywhere else in the world.
There is also anecdotal evidence Americans are increasingly taking veterinary medicine. New research has found that some Americans are probably taking fish antibiotics as a substitute for going to the doctor, which can be prohibitively expensive for many in the US. Unlike other antibiotics, fish antibiotics are readily available without a prescription online and are relatively inexpensive as anti-bacterial drugs for pet fish. Researchers found nine antibiotics for sale at 24 different websites, including some of the most commonly prescribed to humans, such as penicillin and amoxicillin.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/11/fish-antibiotics-human-use-cheaper-than-doctor
There is also anecdotal evidence Americans are increasingly taking veterinary medicine. New research has found that some Americans are probably taking fish antibiotics as a substitute for going to the doctor, which can be prohibitively expensive for many in the US. Unlike other antibiotics, fish antibiotics are readily available without a prescription online and are relatively inexpensive as anti-bacterial drugs for pet fish. Researchers found nine antibiotics for sale at 24 different websites, including some of the most commonly prescribed to humans, such as penicillin and amoxicillin.
Brandon Bookstaver, a pharmacist and director of residency and training at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy, co-authored the research, which was presented at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (Ashp) semi-annual conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, in December.
“Self-medication and the availability of antibiotics without healthcare oversight might contribute to increasing antimicrobial resistance and delayed appropriate treatment,” Bookstaver said. “We were particularly concerned that the high volume of positive feedback on the comments about human use might encourage others to attempt to use these drugs.”
Dr Farzon Nahvi, an emergency room doctor in New York City and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, said, “Humans taking fish antibiotics doesn’t seem to be a specific problem that can be addressed with a specific solution or single law like one increasing the regulation of fish antibiotics,” said Nahvi. “This simply seems to be a symptom of the much larger issue of a broken healthcare system, where people who are excluded from the system are looking for solutions outside of it, sometimes to dangerous effect.”https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/11/fish-antibiotics-human-use-cheaper-than-doctor
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