New
Service for TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
readers...roll mouse over, click on
highlighted links in stories to review items
from Amazon
Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
Patients
buying fewer Prescription Drugs
The growth in prescriptions filled by U.S. pharmacies is at
its slowest in at least ten years, as
increasing health care costs and a slowing
economy are making medication harder to
afford.
According to a recent
Wall
Street Journal article, the drug
industry usually remains stable in economic
downturns, because patients still require
medicine.
However, the number of prescriptions filled
in the second quarter of 2008 may have
actually decreased, due to higher numbers of
Americans without health insurance and
“skyrocketing out-of-pocket drug costs”
putting the cost of some medications out of
reach.
Patients are facing additional burdens as
the health care industry has forced
consumers to shoulder larger percentages of
many costs.
A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that
for a “preferred drug” through a tiered
insurance plan, average co-payments rose 67
percent from $15 in 2000 to $25 in 2007. In
fact, 23 percent of respondents to a Kaiser
foundation poll failed to fill a
prescription in the last year for cost
reasons, up from 20 percent in 2005.
Additionally, 19 percent either skipped
doses or split pills, an increase from 16
percent in 2005.
...
...
...