Poll: Many adults report financial strain due to prescription drug costs

Half of US adults who take prescriptions said their health insurance doesn’t fully cover drug costs, leaving them to face financial strain and in some cases, force them to forgo medications, a new survey suggests.

The findings, which come from a poll that software company QuestionPro conducted on behalf of ValuePenguin, a personal finance website, highlight the challenges prescription drug costs pose for many US residents—particularly those with high-deductible, “catastrophic” health insurance plans that have higher out-of-pocket costs.

The poll’s results come as the Biden administration rolls out a new program to negotiate Medicare drug prices.

The findings:

• Almost two-thirds (64%) of US adults take prescription drugs. Of them, half said their health insurance fully covers related costs. Most respondents (69%) said they pay $99 or less per month on prescriptions, but more than a quarter (26%) reported spending $100–$499 monthly.
• People aged 27 to 42 were most likely to say their insurance fully covers their medication costs (58%), followed by adults aged 18 to 26 (52%), those aged 43 to 58 (50%), and people aged 59 to 77 (40%).
• About a third (31%) of adults whose insurance doesn’t fully cover their drug costs said the expense creates financial strain (a rate that rises to 41% for those with ongoing major medical issues). Nine in 10 of people without full prescription coverage said their insurance pays for part of their drug costs.
• Almost one in five adults (17%) said they’ve gone into debt to afford their family’s prescriptions, but that figure rises to 28% for people with ongoing major medical issues. Meanwhile, 31% of adults said they’ve skipped filling a prescription, and of that group, 37% attributed the decision to not being able to afford the drug.
• About eight in 10 (79%) adults without full coverage haven’t negotiated medication costs with their insurer, 75% haven’t contacted the drugmaker about pharmaceutical assistance programs, and 56% have never asked providers for an alternative prescription that’s covered by their insurance. Further, 62% have not used coupons to save on prescription drug costs or used websites to track prices.

“High prescription drug prices are forcing many Americans to make difficult and sometimes troubling choices, such as skipping their prescriptions because they can’t afford them,” Divya Sangameshwar, a ValuePenguin health insurance professional and spokesperson, said in a statement. “But that’s a drastic and dangerous choice, especially when Americans can employ many other strategies to reduce the cost of their prescriptions.”

Methodology: The poll surveyed 1,906 US adults aged 18 to 77 online from June 26–27.