Prescription Drug Prices Becoming More Unbearable as Economy Slides

People with health insurance are having more trouble paying for prescription drugs as higher out-of-pocket costs for medications and a slowing economy strain family budgets, according to surveys and health care analysts.  The Virginia-based National Patient Advocate Foundation, which helps people pay medical bills, found that 31% of the 44,729 people it aided last year cited drug co-payments as their top medical-debt problem.  In some cases, the patient's share of drug costs ranges as high as 70% of the total. 

Thirteen percent of insured Americans report that paying for drugs is a serious problem, says a recent poll by USA Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health.  That's up from 9% in a foundation survey in 2000. The 31% reporting drug payments as their top medical-debt problem to the patient foundation rose from 26% of people in 2006 and 17% in 2005.  Patient payments for generic drugs rose 38% from 2000 to 2007, and some brand-name drugs rose 48%, the Kaiser data show.  Inflation rose 21% during those years.  Prescription drugs account for about 10% of all health care spending in the U.S. 

"I am appalled that at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to afford their prescriptions, drug company profits and CEO pay continue to reach record highs.  Our government keeps looking the other way while these companies profit off of people just trying to follow their doctor's orders," said George J. Kourpias, President of the Alliance for Retired Americans.