High
prescription drug prices are cutting into the budgets of all Americans,
but no one pays more for drugs than the uninsured, those least able to
pay, according to a survey released todayby an Oregon advocacy group.
Uninsured
Portland residents pay 23 percent more for common medications than
those enrolled in the Oregon Prescription Drug Program, 61 percent more
than federal groups and double what they would spend in Canada, says
the report, "Paying the Price," from the nonprofit Oregon State Public
Interest Research Group Foundation, or OSPIRG.
"The
folks who lack prescription drug insurance and can't afford it are
facing the highest costs . . . and it is outrageous," said Laura
Etherton, the foundation's consumer advocate.
Other studies also have shown that the uninsured -- 46 million in the United States
-- are more likely than others to cut corners on medication to save
money. For example, chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure or
diabetes can be kept under control by medication. But if patients stop
taking the prescribed drug, they may become acutely ill, requiring
costly hospital care. A 2003 survey found that uninsured adults were
twice as likely as those with insurance to say they skimped on pills or
did not fill prescriptions, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation.
The
OSPIRG findings show "that it is not just seniors who are struggling
with this issue, but working folks and young moms," said Maribeth
Healey, executive director of Oregonians for Health Security.
The findings may fuel support for an initiative likely to be on the November ballot that would expand Oregon's prescription drug pool to include all uninsured residents.
The Oregon
group conducted its survey in league with other state public interest
research groups. This spring, researchers surveyed hundreds of
pharmacies in 35 cities across the country, including 20 in the Portland area. They compared the same dosages of 10 drugs commonly used by Americans younger than 65.
Shaving costs
The Portland
survey showed that the year-old Oregon Prescription Drug Program saved
consumers between 15 percent and 44 percent by buying drugs in bulk.
The program, with about 4,000 enrolled, is limited to uninsured,
low-income residents 54 and older.
Karen Bryant, 55, of Hillsboro
said the plan has cut her drug costs in half since she joined two
months ago. Before that, she stopped buying one of her three
blood-pressure medicines for a month so she could afford to buy pain
medicine for her husband, Mike Bryant, 55, while he went through
treatments for throat cancer.
Mike
is a self-employed home repairer, and the Bryants have no health
insurance. They've survived on donations and help from family since
Mike became ill in February.
Mike's
drugs were costing hundreds of dollars a month, said Karen, who also
was paying about $200 for her own prescription drugs.
"This
Oregon Prescription Drug thing was a miracle," she said. "A major load
was taken off of us." She said the plan reduced costs for Mike's liquid
morphine from about $400 to $44 -- "a godsend."
AARP initiative
An
initiative sponsored by AARP Oregon would eliminate age and income
restrictions to allow any of the state's 600,000 uninsured to join the
state prescription drug program. That would expand the pool, giving it
more power to negotiate even lower drug prices, said Jerry Cohen, AARP
Oregon director.
The
initiative has strong backing from Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who has made
expansion of the state drug pool a priority, said Anna Richter Taylor,
his spokeswoman.
The
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America remains neutral on
the initiative while it studies it, but the group supports policies to
increase affordable medicine, said Julie Corcoran, deputy vice
president of government affairs.
The
OSPIRG study shows that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
negotiates prices with drug companies that are dramatically lower than
what uninsured Oregonians pay. An uninsured Portland resident, for example, pays 178 percent more than the federal government for Synthroid.
"Rigged comparisons"
The pharmaceutical group said the drug survey findings in Oregon
and elsewhere used "rigged comparisons" between the market-based retail
prices that people without insurance pay to the government-controlled
prices available to the Veterans Administration.
The
group said it sponsors the Partnership for Prescription Assistance that
has helped 2.5 million low-income, uninsured people nationwide, and
32,992 in Oregon, get free or low-cost drugs.
U.S.
consumers spent $252 billion on prescription drugs in 2005, more than
six times what they spent in 1990. That accounts for 14 percent of
health care spending, said Healey of Oregonians for Health Security.
In today's report, the Oregon
public interest group recommended policies to increase support to the
Food and Drug Administration to reduce a backlog of generic drug
applications, expand Oregon's
drug-buying pool and limit drug makers' marketing tactics, which
sometimes push pills that are no more effective than cheaper and older
medicines.
"When consumers go it alone at the pharmacy," said Etherton of OSPIRG, "they pay the price."
