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In 2015, America was outraged as the cost of a little-known drug called Daraprim skyrocketed overnight from $13.50 to $750 a pill. In 2016, the ubiquitous allergy medicine Epi-Pen rose from $100 to $600 in an instant.

Why? Profit.

These scandals are just two examples of a pervasive problem with American healthcare, which allows pharmaceutical companies to set prices as they see fit with a patchwork system of insurance providers. There are no restrictions of profit margins. There is little transparency in the pricing process. The result? Americans pay more for prescription drugs than any other nation in the world.

In most European countries, single-payer health systems use their size to negotiate big discounts, but the United States does not have a similar program and Obamacare did nothing to rein in the costs of prescription drugs when it was passed.

Clearly, something needs to change. When the price of lifesaving drugs suddenly goes from affordable to exorbitant, people deserve to understand why. When the VA is allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies, but Medicare is not, Medicare ends up with a deal that’s better for the pharmaceutical companies than the people Medicare serves.

Two changes to current American policy would go a long way to ensuring pharmaceutical companies don’t exploit the sick:

1. Require drug-makers to justify the costs of their treatments and disclose major price hikes.
2. Repeal the noninterference clause of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 which prevents Medicare, the single largest payer for health care in the U.S., from negotiating directly with drug companies.

Tell the Department of Health and Human Services enact the above legislation which would be a good start to controlling out-of-control drug prices in the United States. The American public shouldn’t be expected to pad the pocketbooks of wealthy pharmaceutical executives! Lives are on the line.