Costs of Prescriptions discourage use.
July 5, 2007
Pushing more of the cost of prescription drugs onto consumers causes patients to cut back, sometimes with adverse health consequences, according to a review of two decades worth of studies published on Tuesday by the RAND Corporation.
Higher co-payments, monthly limits and benefit caps are “associated with lower rates of drug treatment, worse adherence among existing users, and more frequent discontinuation of therapy.”
“For each 10 percent increase in cost sharing, prescription drug spending decreases by 2 percent to 6 percent, depending on class of drug and condition of the patient” The Study added.
The findings were based on a review of 132 studies done on the topic between 1985 and 2006, and have been published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
At the same time, UK Pharmacutical companies are launching a legal challenge to moves by the state-run National Health Service to switch large numbers of patients onto cheap generic prescription medicines.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) believes such schemes are potentially unsafe and primary care doctors are receiving additional payments to prescribe certain low-cost medicines in contravention of European law.
It argues patients should have to give explicit consent for any switching rather than leaving them to object if they wish to do so.
A Department of Health spokesman said the government would rigorously defend the legal challenge.
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