As the U.S. economy limps along, millions of Americans are living close to the edge and many are trying to save money by going without prescription drugs, skipping dosages and taking other measures that could put their health in danger.
Consumer Reports magazine’s annual prescription drug poll found that 48 percent of Americans who currently take a prescription medicine told pollsters they’d cut health-care costs, for example, by putting off a doctor’s visit or medical procedure, declining tests, or ordering cheaper drugs from outside of the U.S. That’s an increase of 9 percentage points since 2010.
The survey also found that to save money, 28 percent of Americans who take medication have resorted to potentially dangerous actions: for example, they skipped filling a prescription (16 percent), took an expired medication (13 percent), or skipped a scheduled dosage without asking a doctor or pharmacist (12 percent).
Larger numbers (35 percent) of low-income Americans took these risky steps.
Doctors could be doing more to insulate their patients from undue expenses. For example, not all doctors are routinely prescribing generics, which can be a tremendous money-saver; four out of ten respondents (41 percent) said their doctor only sometimes-- or never-- recommends a generic.
“Doctors need to be stewards of their patients’ resource concerns. When you walk into your doctor’s office, you are a patient, first and foremost, but you are also a consumer, and your doctor should be tuned into this, especially during these tough times,” says John Santa, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center.
Some survey highlights:
- Doctors are only slightly more likely to recommend a generic substitute for a brand-name medicine than not. Fifty-four percent of those polled said their physician “always” (26 percent) or “usually” (28 percent) suggests generics, versus 41 percent who said “sometimes” or “never.”
- While generics account for the majority of prescriptions among those taking drugs regularly, 39 percent of Americans reported a concern or misconception about generics.
- Despite the costly burden of prescription drugs, very few doctors raise the issue of cost during their meetings with patients. Only 5 percent of patients found out the cost of a prescription drug during a doctor visit, while two-thirds (64 percent) first learned about cost when picking up their medicine at the pharmacy.
- The number of Americans taking a medication who said that information about whether a doctor accepts money or gifts from drug companies is very valuable has increased significantly by nine percentage points since 2010 to 43 percent today.
- Along the same lines, a strong majority (88 percent) of Americans who take a prescription drug harbor some misgivings about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the prescribing habits of their doctors. Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) agreed completely or somewhat that pharmaceutical companies have too much influence on the drugs that doctors prescribe. Just over half (52%) agreed that doctors are too eager to prescribe a drug rather than consider alternate methods of managing a condition. And half (49 percent) agreed that the drugs that doctors prescribe are influenced by gifts from pharmaceutical companies.
“Some doctors are still taking money from industry and they may be lagging when it comes to suggesting alternatives to drug therapy, prescribing less expensive generics, and talking to their patients about cost issues. This is not a time for doctors to cave into industry influence nor is it a good time to be passive about the fiduciary interests of their patients,” says Santa.
The complete survey is available at www.ConsumerReports.org/health.
