Out-of-Pocket Costs Go Up When Prescription Drug Prices Rise

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• A recent study found that out-of-pocket drug costs increased 3 percent between 2015 and 2017.
• Experts say the rise is due to drug companies raising prices, a practice that’s unregulated.
• Solutions could include limiting the amount that costs can increase or getting rid of rebates.
• Generic drugs are a more affordable option for uninsured and insured people.

People in the United States end up paying more for prescription drugs over time due to rising list prices, according to new research.

In a paper published this month in JAMA Network Open, a team of researchers led by Dr. Benjamin Rome, an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, reported that the list price of 79 brand-name drugs rose by more than 16 percent while average out-of-pocket costs went up by more than 3 percent from 2015 to 2017.

Rome told Healthline that the findings shine a light on drug policy in the United States.

“I think most people who work in insurance companies and health policy experts recognize this problem, which is that a growing number of patients are paying coinsurance and deductibles that are based on the list price of the drugs,” he said. “I don’t think our findings are terribly unexpected in that sense, but they do prove a key point that I think has big policy implications as Congress and states figure out how to get their pricing under control.”