Drug Price Reform Is Not Enough: Why True Healing Requires More Than Medicine

At ACESWELL, we believe affordable access to essential medications is a human right. But we also know something few policymakers are willing to say out loud:

Lower drug prices won’t make us healthy.

They may help reduce financial stress and improve short-term access—but if we don’t change the way we use medications, we risk creating more dependency, waste, and long-term harm.

Here’s why drug affordability is only one part of the picture—and why true healing depends on addressing the whole person.

 

The Problem: America Is Drowning in Medication

More than 42% of U.S. seniors take five or more prescriptions per day. One in eight takes ten or more. And yet, we’re not seeing better health outcomes. Instead, we see:

• Fatigue
   
• Confusion
   
• Chronic side effects
   
• And an overburdened system trying to treat symptoms faster than they appear

This isn’t just a medical issue. It’s a cultural one. We’ve made pills the primary answer to pain, sadness, exhaustion, and imbalance.

 

Adverse Drug Reactions Are a Leading Cause of Death

Here’s what most people don’t know: even when medications are taken correctly, they can still cause serious harm.

• More than 100,000 Americans die annually from adverse drug reactions in hospitals
• These reactions are now the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S.—more than diabetes or pneumonia

  (JAMA, Lazarou et al., 1998)

We’re not talking about misuse or abuse. We’re talking about patients doing exactly what they were told.

 

What the ACES Model Shows Us

At ACESWELL, we use the ACES Model of Health and Medicine to guide every intervention:

• Anatomy – Is the body aligned, mobile, rested?
   
• Chemistry – Are nutrients, hormones, and medications balanced?
   
• Energy – Are emotions, trauma, and behavior integrated?
   
• Soul – Is the patient connected to meaning, purpose, and relationships?
   

Medications live in the Chemistry domain. But real healing often requires support across all four dimensions.

 

Medication Waste and Environmental Harm

Medication overuse doesn’t just harm people. It harms the planet.

• U.S. healthcare wastes over $200 billion each year on unnecessary or misused prescriptions
   
• Over 80% of rivers and streams now contain pharmaceutical residues
   
• Improper disposal is contributing to antibiotic resistance and ecological disruption
   

Cheaper meds without smarter use = greater environmental cost.

 

Reform Must Go Deeper Than Price

We’re not against lower drug prices. But we believe real reform must also include:

• Medication reviews and deprescribing support
   
• Insurance coverage for root-cause therapies like acupuncture, nutrition, and trauma work
   
• Drug take-back and safe disposal education
   
• Limits on pharmaceutical advertising and lobbying
   
• Independent clinical research, free from commercial bias
   

A Call to the ACESWELL Community

We created ACESWELL not to fight medicine—but to elevate it. We believe in a model of care where:

• Prescriptions are temporary tools, not permanent identities
   
• Emotional and spiritual wounds are respected, not medicated away
   
• The whole person is seen—and supported—across structure, chemistry, energy, and soul
   

Let’s move from treatment to transformation. From pills to purpose. From “How much does it cost?” to “What is it costing us not to change?”