In the last five years, insured Americans have been paying lower out-of-pocket costs for their prescriptions, but patients paying with cash are spending noticeably more, according to new analysis from the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science.
The analysis reveals that the average cost for commercially insured prescriptions decreased from $10.83 to $8.90 from 2015-19. However, cash-paying patients without insurance are spending more, as their average monthly prescription cost increased to $50.78 from $36.77, and their average brand-name drug cost increased to $105.74 from $93.62.
The analysis also noted that 60 percent of all prescriptions with a final cost exceeding $500 are never picked up, compared to a 5 percent abandonment rate for prescriptions with no cost.