Thursday, April 14, 2022 | The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Dear John, A new Health Affairs article examines how drug costs limit use, even for people with health insurance.
Medicare Drug Affordability
In this month's issue of Health Affairs, Stacie Dusetzina and coauthors dive into debates around drug pricing—specifically how the health benefits of drugs are limited due to barriers of affordability, often even for people with health insurance.
Examining electronic health records of Medicare Part D enrollees in eleven health care systems around the country, they find that almost thirty percent of enrollees who were prescribed a high-cost cancer drug did not fill the prescription within ninety days.
“Despite their higher incomes and assets, beneficiaries without low-income subsidies more frequently failed to initiate treatment as prescribed than those with low-income subsidies,” according to Dusetzina and coauthors.
“That differential is likely due to the stark difference in expected out-of-pocket expense for treatment among those with versus without a low-income subsidy.”
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