Before the pandemic, nearly 13 million U.S. adults reported delaying or not filling a prescription in the past year because of cost, according to a Dec. 1 analysis from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit economic and social policy research organization.
For the report, Urban Institute analyzed 2018-19 data on drug affordability challenges from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.
Four report findings:
1. An estimated annual average of 12.8 million adults delayed or did not fill drug prescriptions because of the cost. This total included more than 2.3 million Medicare beneficiaries, 3.8 million nonelderly adults with private insurance, 1.1 million with Medicaid and 4.1 million who were uninsured for any period of time.
2. Uninsured adults were most likely to not fill prescriptions. Urban Institute found 9.5 percent of adults who were consistently uninsured and 11.6 who were temporarily uninsured had unmet prescription drug needs, compared to 4.9 percent of Medicare beneficiaries, 3 percent of adults with private insurance and 5.6 percent of adults with Medicaid.
3. Among adults covered by Medicare or private insurance, women, people with low incomes and those with multiple chronic health conditions were most likely to have unmet prescription drug needs.
4. About 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries and 5.3 percent of adults with private insurance reported spending more than 1 percent of their family incomes on out-of-pocket drug costs.
View the full report here.