Increasingly, Americans are finding it harder to afford their prescription medications.
Dr. Jack Rodman's heart sank when he heard the news: One of his elderly patients with a heart condition had a stroke because she couldn't afford the medicines he'd prescribed her.
Increasingly, Americans are finding it harder to afford their prescription medications.
"She went cold turkey and stopped taking all of them," said Rodman, an internist at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida. "What's so sad is that she assumed that since some of her medicines were expensive, all of them were. If she'd just kept taking her Coumadin [a blood thinner], which is like $5 a month, she likely wouldn't have had the stroke."
Rodman says this woman isn't his only patient who, faced with tough economic times, has stopped taking his or her medications. "There are lots of examples of this, and I fear there will be more," he said.
A new report from Consumer Reports finds that many Americans are having trouble affording their prescription drugs and have taken dangerous steps as a result.
The survey, released this week, found that 28 percent of Americans have taken steps such as not filling prescriptions, skipping dosages and cutting pills in half without the approval of their doctor, and even sharing prescriptions with a friend.
"The cost of health care is leading consumers to cut corners in ways that are potentially dangerous," said Dr. John Santa, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center.
Prices for prescription drugs are skyrocketing. In 2007, Americans spent $287 billion on prescription drugs, about five times as much as in 1993, according to Consumer Reports.
If you think you're immune from these price increases because you have prescription drug insurance, think again.
In 2002, Consumer Reports found that 65 percent of the drugs they surveyed were mostly or entirely covered by insurance. When they asked about the same drugs in 2008, only 33 percent were covered mostly or entirely, and 5 percent of purchases weren't covered at all.