The following is an excerpt from an article by Sally Pipes, Founder & Chair of the Benjamin Rush Institute, published in Newsmax. Click here to read the full article in your browser.
America’s healthcare tab has hit a new record. According to federal data published late last month, national health expenditures climbed to nearly $5.7 trillion in 2025, an increase of 7.3% over the previous year.
The report noted that retail prescription drug spending rose 11%, driven in part by increased use of GLP-1 medicines.
Increases in health spending are not, by themselves, evidence that our system is failing.
As societies become wealthier, people generally spend more on healthcare because they place a higher value on living longer and healthier lives.
The real question isn’t whether healthcare spending increased.
It’s why.
Some healthcare spending is due to the enormous cost of medical innovation.
This is especially true in the drug sector. Bringing a single new medicine to patients typically requires 10 to 15 years of research and billions of dollars in investment.
That spending often results in real medical progress.
Fifty years ago, Americans couldn’t buy GLP-1 medicines, biologic drugs, cures for hepatitis C, or many of today’s targeted cancer treatments — because they didn’t exist.
We spend more on medicines today in part because they can do far more. And in many cases, they end up saving money in the long run by keeping patients out of the hospital.
Click here to continue reading the full article in your browser.
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