Americans and prescription drugs

So, have you read the latest on prescription drugs? 40% of Americans are on prescriptions. It sounds bad at first, but after giving it some thought, I'm really not sure why it's a big deal.

I'd guess a high percentage of women 18-40 use birth control pills, which are prescriptions. It's not surprising that many people over the age of 40 are taking some sort of blood pressure, cholesterol-lowering medication. I have allergies and I take prescriptions during the spring and fall allergy seasons.

These are all reasonable uses of prescription drugs which affect a large number of people. So what's the big story?