Environmentally friendly inhalers double the cost for people with asthma

Asthma inhalers The environment can be good for the environment, but almost doubled what people with asthma are paying out of pocket for inhalers.

This is the main message of a study led by Dr. Anupam Jena, health care assistant from politics and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital. The results were published online today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In 2008, the FDA banned a class of inhalers for asthma containing propellants that deplete the ozone called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Depletion of the ozone layer of the earth causing serious risks to humans, including an increased risk of skin cancer.

Parts thrusters are more expensive than CFCs. Because more than 25 million people in the US rely on quick relief inhalers for asthma symptoms, Dr. Jena and colleagues at Southern California University and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health wanted measure the effects on the financial health and policy change in 2008.

"The objective of reducing the use of chemicals that deplete the ozone layer is obviously important, but we wanted to see how patients with asthma have been affected by this policy," said Dr. Jena.With more than 140,000 people with asthma enrolled in 77 different health plans, the researchers found an average increase of $ 10 per prescription inhaler, nearly double what people with asthma were paying out of pocket before the withdrawal of CFCs.

The prohibition of the use of CFCs in asthma inhalers was controversial as it raises concerns about the rising cost of essential drugs, the findings of Dr. Jena and support colleagues, and because skepticism the final environmental impact of the ban on CFC-free inhalers powered.

(Adapted from an article in the Harvard Medical News Today more. A video of Dr. Jena explain how economic tools used to help explain how and why including consumers, doctors and others to make medical decisions.)