High Medication Costs Can Lead Patients to Skip Doses

The idea behind cost-sharing in healthcare costs goes something like this: If the patient is responsible for some part of the cost of their care, they’ll be more judicious in their choices of treatment, and healthcare spending will decline. While this does work in some ways, it can have unintended consequences. When people need a prescription drug, and that drug costs more than they’re willing or able to pay, they’ll just reduce their dose, or stop taking their medicine all together. Today we’re talking about some of the bad outcomes that can come with cost sharing.

Related HCT episodes:
Regulating Drug Prices: https://youtu.be/ZSQS1my9nos

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Source links for this episode:
1. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db349-h.pdf
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6204232/
3. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/198761
4. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/207805
5. https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-ACAs-BC-Benefit-Report.pdf
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14657430?dopt=Abstract
7. https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.2013.52.9123?url_ver=Z39.88- 2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed&
8. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db184.pdf
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5293866/
10. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-pharmaceuticals/canadian-panel-calls-for-universal-public-drug-coverage-idUSKCN1TD20M
11. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149291809000204?via=ihub
12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4510208/
13. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/when-is-it-okay-to-split-medication-in-half

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