Posted by Michael Wonder on 05 Sep 2017
Cancer survivors more likely to skip drugs due to cost
6 September 2017 - The percentage of U.S. adults under age 65 who skip essential prescription drugs because of price has declined, a five-year study found. But consistently, problems with financial access to medication were more common in cancer survivors.
“Spending on prescription drugs to treat cancer has been increasing in the United States, and many newer cancer drugs have annual price tags of $100,000 or more,” study co-author K. Robin Yabroff told Reuters Health in an email.
Patient cost-sharing has also been increasing in recent years, she noted. And there have been significant changes in financial hardship due to costs of prescription drugs between 2011 and 2015, said Yabroff, who is a researcher with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC.
