As Paychecks Stall, Drug Costs Go Up

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/04/03/as-paychecks-stall-drug-costs-go-up/

by James Parks, Apr 3, 2008

Having health insurance no longer necessarily means that you can afford the medicines you need to stay healthy. According to a new report, people with health insurance are having more trouble paying for prescription drugs as insurers push more of the drug costs onto workers, at the same time the economic recession is stretching family budgets.

A survey by the National Patient Advocate Foundation, which helps people pay medical bills, found 31 percent of the nearly 45,000 people it assisted last year said drug co-payments were their top medical-debt problem.



In some cases, the patient’s share of drug costs is no longer a flat dollar amount, but a proportion that can range from 20 percent to 70 percent, according to USA Today. Co-payments for prescription drugs have risen most sharply for costly types of drugs.

According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, patient payments for generic drugs rose 38 percent from 2000 to 2007 and some brand-name drugs rose 48 percent. Yet workers’ paychecks are not growing at the same rate. The Economic Policy Institute reports wages have grown slower than inflation since 2001 and real hourly wages have thus been flat or negative since last October.

The news that drug costs are rising comes as no surprise to Curt from Ohio, who says:

My wife was prescribed a drug that cost $1,400 per month. Originally my health insurance covered the cost. When my employer changed coverage, they no longer covered that cost. We ran up thousands of dollars of debt on credit cards until we could find a cheaper alternative. Eventually a doctor directed us to a source in Europe that could provide the same drug for $600 per month. Eventually we had to give up on the treatment as we could not afford to continue. We sold one car to help pay off the debt, but we are still struggling to pay off the balance.

FULL story at link.