Third of Uninsured Skimp on Meds to Save Money

by WebMD March 19, 2019

March 19, 2019 — High drug prices prompt about one-third of uninsured American adults to not take their medicines as prescribed to save money, a new government report shows.

In 2017, nearly 60 percent of adults aged 18 to 64 said they’d been prescribed drugs over the past 12 months, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, 11.4 percent of them said they did not follow doctor’s orders on taking the drugs to lower their costs, CNN reported Tuesday.

The study said that 8.4 percent of people with private insurance did this, compared with 12.5 percent of Medicaid enrollees. Women were more likely than men to try to reduce drug costs.

Nearly 1 in 5 of those prescribed drugs asked their doctors for less expensive options. The rate was highest — 40 percent — among people without insurance, CNN reported.

Just over 5 percent of people used alternative therapies, including nearly 14 percent of those without insurance, according to the study.

WebMD News from HealthDay