How Health Care Affects Prescription Statistics
Millions of people all over the United States have some form of depression, but not everyone has equal access to medicines used to combat the effects of the illness. Multiple studies have illustrated that white folks are more likely to make appointments with doctors about their depression, and in turn, be prescribed antidepressants for treatment, especially brand name antidepressants like Prozac. Upon closer inspection of these studies, it is revealed that people with Private Health Insurance are more likely to receive antidepressant prescriptions than those with Medicaid or Medicare. In addition, those with Medicaid are even less likely to be prescribed antidepressants because Medicaid is based on income, while Medicare is accessible to elder people. Because income varies by race statistically, the affordability of health insurance is what causes the racial discrepancy in antidepressant prescriptions.
In 2008, 30.4% of Hispanics, 17% of blacks, and 9.9% of whites did not have any form of health insurance. Without health insurance, prescriptions are fully priced. Brand name antidepressants such as Prozac can cost up to $257 per month for the smallest dosage available, which is unaffordable for too many people. The allure of brand names can lead some people to not consider the generic form, which is immensely cheaper; generic Prozac, known as Fluoxetine, costs up to $28 per month for the same dosage level. It makes sense that the uninsured don’t get prescriptions with these rates, but since more minorities are uninsured, it misleads the public into thinking that doctors favor white patients.
If the 2008 statistic is reversed, 70% of Hispanics, 83% of blacks, and 90% of whites had health insurance in some form. Respectively, 45%, 53% , and 70% had private health insurance; while the other 55% , 47% , and 30% had government health insurance. Even though having health insurance makes it easier to afford prescriptions, the affordability and availability of the medication still depends on which insurance plan you have.
Traditionally, private health insurance plans are the most expensive because they cover a lot more services, doctors, and medications than Medicare or Medicaid. The high cost of being able to have access to any doctor at any care center for any treatment is too much for many people, so they have cheaper plans that restrict where they can go and who their doctors are and what types of prescriptions are covered. Medicaid provides low income individuals and families with many medical services, such as midwives and vaccines, without charge. But services like prescriptions might not be available, depending on state laws. Medicare provides the elderly with hospital stay coverage, but a lot of additional services require a premium, and not all medications are covered. If an individual’s plan does not cover the cost of prescription antidepressants, then they are less likely to get them, which in turn affects the statistics.
The racial gap in the prescribing of antidepressants is not because of racist doctors; the real cause is a mix between health insurance coverage (or lack of), and the deeply-ingrained beliefs about medicine and medical professional in different cultures. Overall, health insurance is what determines who can afford the pills. If this gap needs to be fixed, then the racial gaps in health care need to be accounted for as well.
Works Cited
“People Without Health Insurance Coverage, by Race and Ethnicity” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 3 December 2008. Web. 25 April 2014.
“Using Antidepressants to Treat Depression” Consumer Reports. September 2013. Web. 25 April 2014.
“Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012” U.S. Department of Commerce. US Census Bureau. September 2013. Web. 25 April 2014.
“Medicare Benefits Vs. Private Health Insurance” John Zaphyr. eHow. Web. 25 April 2014.
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
I would like feedback on this.
Also, I’m not sure what the greatest rebuttal is to my essay.
Feedback provided. —DSH
Hey, Rachel
P1. This is good and terse, Rachel, but it doesn’t begin to prove everything it asserts. Its claims sound complete but aren’t.
—Equal access to treatment could mean the availability of a regular physician, or the security of private health insurance, or the services of a psychiatrist or counselor, or the availability of prescription drugs. You might need to address each of these as you go, and at least hint here in the introduction which if any of them you mean.
—Likely to be prescribed could mean likely to see a doctor who would subscribe, or likely to be subscribed by the doctor they see. Are white folks more likely to see the doctor? Are white folks more likely to talk to the doctor about depression? Are the doctors white folks see more likely to think they can afford to treat depression?
—More likely to receive prescriptions is vague. Does it mean prescriptions universally considered? Or do you specifically mean prescriptions for Prozac here? Or do you mean prescriptions for anti-depressants including both Prozac and generics?
—Medicaid and Medicare are two very different animals, one with a race bias perhaps, one without a race bias I’m aware of. Old folks black white and Hispanic are all eligible for Medicare and use it, maybe in equal proportions (you tell me), whereas Medicaid is specifically for those of limited incomes, which could create bias. You weaken the argument of your final sentence if you don’t distinguish these.
P2. I won’t keep up this deluge of notes throughout. When comparing something expensive to something comparatively cheaper, it’s a rhetorical mistake to say the cheaper thing can cost “up to” any number. The much more effective comparison is how little it can cost, not how much it can cost. If you only know the upper number and can’t find the lower one, describe the $28 as “no more than $28 per month.” See the difference?
P3. It takes a while to understand your percentages because of the way you play them out. Eventually I realized the second and third sets of percentages were further divisions of the first set. In other words, they were 45/55, 53/47, 70/30 private/public breakdowns of three race groups of policyholders.
P4. The “expense” of private and public insurance is irrelevant until you connect the higher cost of the plans that would cover prescription a-ds to the race groups you’ve identified.
P5. You do of course know the strongest and most likely rebuttal to your argument. The fact that you refute it before you name it doesn’t mean it isn’t the best rebuttal. The counterargument that is in the minds of your reader before you start to lay out your argument is what you use your rebuttal argument to defeat. You’ve said it here and put it to rest . . . to a degree.
First, you need to actually make the connection stated in P4.
Second, you need to do more than hint that a larger percentage of white folks buy expensive insurance, if that’s what makes them better able to afford the Prozac.
Third, you will still need to combat the notion among readers that white people are more likely to be able to “afford the luxury” of treating their depression: poor folks are too busy trying to make a living to visit the doctor, attribute their ailments to depression, raise the subject with their doctors, or accept the diagnosis if it’s offered.
That may be a myth, but powerful myths need to be refuted before the truth is persuasive.
I dropped some sample Works Cited citations into your post to reinforce the formatting required in your Portfolio, Rachel.
I was a bit lazy, sorry.
OK.