MY STORY

Hi, my name is Brenda Sha, founder of Compassion & Care for the Community currently attending high school in Sunnvale. Looking towards a future occupation in medicine, I’ve always been concerned and involved with the policies of America’s health system. I would like to address a problem that us as Americans face, but feel powerless to change, as it has been concretely established as the way it is. My topic is to bring reform to the serious overcharging of medicinal drugs from large pharmaceutical companies as well as high costs of healthcare. Overall, the reasoning about the price of pharmacy drugs has been extremely broad and vague, and with very little knowledge as to why they are priced so high, society has just accepted them to be the way they are. Recently, numerous scandals have been emerging throughout the news where big name brand pharmaceutical companies have been caught increasing prices drastically for the sole purpose of more profit. After listening to the podcast, America Dissected,  I was inspired to research and support those who are financially struggling to handle the price that comes with their disabilities and illnesses. Medicine is an essential part in many Americans lives, and even bringing awareness to such problem can open a crack into changing the healthcare system. Compared to other countries, America’s healthcare practices are the most expensive and problematic. It is not fair that only those with money are able to receive proper health treatments, because everyone deserves to be healthy. People are left suffering and untreated while big companies are gaining more money into their own pockets. This form of injustice is completely unacceptable, and I want to start to take action so the future of health can be revolved around humanity and compassion instead of greed and money. It will personally affect my career as a physician later down the road because I will be able to prescribe drugs and treatments to patients without the worry and guilt that they can’t afford it.