WASHINGTON—Uninsured
consumers are charged 60 percent more for common prescription drugs
than the drug companies charge the federal government, according to a
new U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) report released today.
In Washington, D.C., uninsured consumers are charged nearly 65 percent
more.
In
the spring of 2006, the state PIRGs surveyed more than 600 pharmacies
in 35 cities—including Washington, D.C.—to determine how much uninsured
consumers pay for ten drugs as compared with prices paid by the federal
government, which uses its buying power to negotiate with drug
companies for lower prices.
In
the survey, Boston drug stores charged the highest prescription drug
prices to the uninsured. Representative Edward J. Markey (MA) joined
U.S. PIRG to release the report at a Capitol Hill press conference and
noted that uninsured consumers in Boston are charged 73 percent more
than the federal government pays for the same drugs.
Rep.
Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
said, "PIRG's study shows what happens when the federal government
won't step in to ensure that Americans have access to prescription
drugs. The Veteran's Administration effectively negotiates with drug
companies to keep the price of prescriptions low for millions of
veterans by buying in bulk. But the 45 million Americans who don't have
insurance don't have anyone looking out for their drug costs and are
left to fend for themselves. The prescription drug system is broken and
it is long past the time for the federal government to help the
uninsured avoid choosing between buying the drugs they need and paying
for their rent or food."
While
many studies have focused on the impact of high drug prices on senior
citizens, U.S. PIRG’s survey examined the prices uninsured consumers
are charged for a range of prescription drugs widely used by Americans
under 65, such as antibiotics, allergy medication, anti-depressants,
and cholesterol-lowering medication.
Among the survey’s key findings:
•
Nationally, in the 35 cities surveyed, uninsured consumers are charged
60 percent more on average than the federal government pays for same
drugs and twice as much as they would pay at a Canadian pharmacy.
•
In 2004, U.S. PIRG released a similar study of prescription drug
prices. Looking at the nine drugs surveyed both in 2004 and 2006, the
average price paid by uninsured consumers nationally increased by 11
percent, faster than the general rate of inflation over the two-year
period.
•
In Washington, D.C., uninsured consumers are charged 64.5 percent more
than the federal government pays for the same drugs, ranking the city
8th out of the 35 cities surveyed. The cholesterol-lowering drug
Lipitor costs more in the nation’s capital than in any other city
surveyed.
•
The uninsured in Washington, D.C. are charged more than twice as much
for their medications at local drug stores as they would pay at a
Canadian pharmacy. The hormone replacement drug Premarin costs 550
percent more at Washington, D.C. drug stores than it would at Canadian
pharmacies, more than six times the price.
“When
more than 40 million uninsured and countless more underinsured
Americans go it alone at the pharmacy, they pay an unacceptably high
price for their medications,” said U.S. PIRG Consumer Advocate Paul
Brown. “With more than 40 million uninsured Americans and millions more
who are underinsured, this is a huge and costly problem.”
U.S.
PIRG called for increasing the availability of low cost generic drugs
by closing loopholes that allow drug makers to extend their patents and
tightening oversight of drug makers’ marketing tactics, which drive up
demand for the newest and more expensive drugs regardless of
effectiveness. U.S. PIRG also supports establishing prescription drug
buying pools at the state level to allow individuals (including the
uninsured), businesses and the government to use their combined buying
power to negotiate lower drug prices with manufacturers.
“Getting
generic drugs on the market faster and forming buying pools are common
sense solutions that will almost immediately lower prescription drugs
costs to the millions of hard-working Americans who are uninsured or
underinsured,” concluded Brown.
