Is the High Cost of Your Prescription Drugs Making You Sick?
Millions of Americans take prescription drugs. For some, these medications are a temporary measure to help them recover from an illness or injury. For many people, however, prescription drugs represent the only defense they have against crippling pain. For others, prescription medications are literally a lifeline in the fight against diseases like cancer. Americans pay the highest prices in the world for their prescription drugs, and the ill effects cannot be overstated.
A couple from Lyman recently shared with us that the husband has a life-threatening allergy requiring him to carry an EpiPen on his person at all times. Each pen refill costs over $400. Unable to afford the medication, he hopes that the last EpiPen he purchased is still viable. It expired three years ago.
Sadly, if one takes a look at the trend of retail prices for widely used prescription drugs in America, it is no wonder that many Mainers like the Lyman couple are struggling to afford the drugs they need. AARP’s Public Policy Institute periodically publishes reports which examine prescription drug pricing trends. The latest report, “Rx Price Watch Report: Trends in Retail Prices of Prescription Drugs Widely Used by Older Americans: 2017 Year-End Update,” revealed a startling fact: The retail prices of some of the most popular medications older Americans take to treat everything from diabetes to high blood pressure to asthma increased by an average of 8.4 percent in 2017. This rate of increase is four times the rate of inflation.
In dollars and cents, let’s consider the huge impact on consumers’ wallets. AARP’s study found, for example, that in 2017, the retail price of the popular brand-name drug Lyrica, which is used to treat fibromyalgia, increased by 19.3 percent; the price of diabetes drug Januvia increased by 8.2 percent; and the price of Benicar, a widely used medicine for high blood pressure, increased by 17.8 percent.
If you currently have health insurance coverage, you may be one of the lucky ones who only has a co-pay for your medications. However, the steep increase in drug costs ultimately affects you in the form of higher insurance deductibles and premiums. At the end of the day, we all pay.
The truth is that drug companies make billions in profits from older adults and hardworking Americans each year. No one should have to choose between food and medicine, but some Mainers are doing just that.
The time has come for Congress to take action against the high cost of prescription medications. Drug companies must be kept from overcharging older Mainers and their families for the medications they need to stay healthy. People of all ages depend on prescription medications, and unfair prices are putting them out of reach. The tens of billions of dollars drug companies spend on advertising each year is shameful and results in drugs being more expensive. These advertising dollars far outweigh the money drug companies spend on the development of new drugs.
We hope you will join AARP Maine in advocating on this critical issue in the months ahead. As a first step, we urge you to visit action.aarp.org/rx to send a letter to your members of congress in Washington. Join our growing team of state volunteer advocates by calling our office at 776-6302. Follow AARP Maine on Facebook and Twitter @aarpmaine for the latest news and calls to action. If you have seen the cost of your prescription medications skyrocket in the past few years, and want to help be a part of the solution to bring these prices down, send an email to me@aarp.org so we can work together to make your voice heard.
Congress and state governments must come together to pass bipartisan legislation to lower prescription drug prices now. Americans cannot afford to wait any longer.
Jane Margesson, AARP Maine Communications Director
Address: 53 Baxter Blvd, Portland.
Phone: 1-866-554-5380
Email: jmargesson@aarp.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aarpmaine
Twitter: www.twitter.com/aarpmaine
Website: www.aarp.org/me
