- Drug Benefit Trends Vol 21 No 10
- Volume 21
- Issue 10
Decision Making Regarding Prescription Drugs: Out-of-Pocket Pressures
Dr Schommer is professor, University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Minneapolis. Cindy Chen, Jagannath Muzumdar and Siting Zhou are doctoral candidates at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy.
Insurance coverage for prescription drugs makes a difference in the amount of medications people obtain, how much they spend on medications out-of-pocket, and how much is spent in total on their behalf.1 Persons with insurance coverage also are more likely to have access to a broader array of therapies, including more costly therapies.2 Those without prescription drug coverage face greater financial burdens and may sometimes be unable to follow the courses of treatment prescribed for them.1,2
An April 2008 survey showed that uninsured nonelderly adults (18 to 64 years of age) were more than twice as likely as insured nonelderly adults to report that they or a family member did not fill a prescription (45% vs 22%) or that they cut pills or skipped doses of medicine (38% vs 18%) in the past year because of the cost.3 A survey of Americans 65 years and older that controlled statistically for prescription drug use and income showed that respondents without any prescription insurance coverage were 5 times more likely to report financial hardship than those with coverage.1 For the subset of respondents with prescription insurance coverage, number of prescriptions used daily and income were associated with reporting financial hardship.1