13 Smart Ways to Save on Prescription Drugs
@karabrandeisky, Feb. 29, 2016
Save 40% or more on the medications you need.
Your prescription drugs may come with a new side effect: financial pain. Prescription-drug spending grew 12.2% in 2014—five times as fast as the year before—according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. And the sickest Americans bear the biggest burden. Some 43% of those in fair or poor health say it’s somewhat or very difficult to afford their medications, and 37% say they’ve skipped out on filling a prescription because of cost, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
What has changed? Generic drugs, long an affordable alternative to name-brand medicines, have become part of the problem. The average price of the 50 most popular generic drugs increased 373% between 2010 and 2014, according to OptumRx, a pharmacy benefit management company. One culprit is consolidation: After a decade of mergers, three big companies now control 40% of the generics market, says Gerard Anderson, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Weaker competition means drug companies can charge your insurer more. Meanwhile, pricey new miracle drugs—like hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi ($1,000 per pill for an 84-pill course)—are also a key factor forcing up overall medication costs.
In response, insurers are making consumers pay more, and work harder, to get their prescriptions—if the drugs are even covered. “We’re seeing plans limit the choices of drugs that are available,” says Sandy Ageloff, senior consultant with Willis Towers Watson.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways for you to save. By making strategic changes in the medications you take (with your doctor’s okay, of course), the places you buy them, and the insurance plan you elect, you may be able to shave 40% or more off your total prescription-drug costs this year. Here are the steps you need to take.
