Every Policymaker Should Know. . . Prescription Drug Fair Pricing See the 2001 Legislative Update . A health crisis is sweeping this country, threatening the lives and well-being of millions of Americans soaring prices for prescription drugs.
Drug prices are out of control, rising twice as fast as the inflation rate.
At the same time, the number of Americans with health insurance covering prescription drugs is declining by a million people per year. The problem is literally an epidemic, because many Americans, especially seniors on fixed incomes, are forced to risk their health by sharing drugs, skipping doses or doing without medicine altogether because it is simply too expensive. One in four Americans 70 million do not have insurance covering prescription drugs. Medicare does not cover outpatient prescriptions, and older Americans desperately need these medicines. Because they have more medical concerns, seniors representing only 12 percent of the population consume one-third of all prescription drugs.