ORLANDO, Fla — Patients needing prescription medications are facing sticker shock and some people are paying more than others for the exact same drugs.
For some, these drugs can mean the difference between life and death, but many Americans are struggling to afford them and often the pricing system is confusing and frustrating.
Action 9 found in some cases, just driving to a different store could save consumers hundreds of dollars. So, getting prescriptions filled can bring worry and uncertainty.
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“Healthcare is expensive, and I work in healthcare,” said Martavia Brown. She runs a home healthcare business in central Florida. Brown has seen patients cutting back on other things just to afford their medications. “Especially for our older people, it’s been very hard for them,” she said.
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That kind of scenario is not surprising to Merith Basey, the CEO of non-profit, Patients for Affordable Drugs.
“Americans pay between four and eight times what patients in other countries pay for the very same brand name prescription drugs,” Basey told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal. She added one out of three Americans struggle to afford their medications.
Basey said, “The key piece here is that it’s very opaque, which means that it’s hard for patients to really know exactly what’s going on and how much they’re going to pay.”
She noted drug makers set the list price and typically try to extend their monopoly on their drugs for as long as possible. Then insurance companies and pharmacy benefits managers, the so-called middlemen, get involved and work out different deals. So, drug prices can vary greatly depending on the insurance plan and even the store patients choose.
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Martavia Brown said, “You do have coupons, you do have options, and maybe discounted programs that your doctor’s office can refer you to.” She found at times drugs are cheaper without using insurance and that shopping around does help.
The State of Florida even started a website, MyFloridaRX, designed to bring some transparency to drug prices. It can help patients search out the best deal on some of the most common drugs where they live. They can select the county and drug type and see which stores have the best prices.
For a basic antibiotic we found it priced around $6 at one store and around $15 at another store. For Ozempic, we saw a more than $600 difference between two pharmacies in Orange County.
“Being a patient, especially in the United States, relying on a prescription drug to survive, is, you know, navigating hurdles day to day, and that can be extremely frustrating,” said Emmabella Rudd.
Rudd has Type 1 diabetes. Her battle to secure insulin needed to survive prompted her to become a patient advocate for affordable drugs. She’s seen other diabetics stop paying bills and even beg for a vile of insulin just to get by. While she and Merith Basey with Patients for Affordable Drugs agree efforts like shopping around and seeking discounts are a good thing in the short term, they believe ultimately real change will come from Capitol Hill where more laws can be passed to make the price of drugs more affordable and transparent for patients.
Right now, Congress is looking at legislation that would limit how much the middlemen can profit on prescription medications with the idea being it won’t be as easy to drive up prices for patients.
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