Last year, 36 million Americans didnt have a prescription filled because they couldnt affordit.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during the Dec. 19 Democratic presidential primary debate.泭
During a heated exchange over health reform during the December Democratic presidential primary debate Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren turned to the topic of high prescription drug prices.
Last year, 36 million Americans didnt have a prescription filled because they couldnt afford it, the Massachusetts senator said.
Drug prices are a persistent hot-button issue, and one of the health issues they most want Washington to take on. So we decided to take a closer look.
We contacted the Warren campaign, which directed us to a February survey from the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation headquartered in New York.
The Data
The supports Warrens point; in fact, its a slightly larger number than she said on the debate stage.
In 2018, the researchers estimate, 37 million non-elderly adults went without filling a prescription because they could not afford it. Thats almost 1 in 5 of the U.S. population.
Having coverage, the researchers note, doesnt guarantee youll afford medication. The survey makes a point of noting the 87 million non-elderly adults are uninsured, experienced a gap in coverage or are underinsured which means they had coverage the entire year, but still faced out-of-pocket costs (excluding premiums) that imposed a substantial financial burden.
Thats another point Warren and other candidates repeated during the debates health care portion.
Those are people with health insurance, as well, Warren added. People who can't do the copays, people without can't do the deductibles.
The Commonwealth paper suggests much of this underinsurance issue comes from deterioration of health plans Americans get through work, which is the way most non-elderly Americans get coverage.
Commonwealth isnt the only organization to look at this question of prescription drug affordability. A surveyed more than 1,000 adults, asking them if, in the past 12 months, they had not had enough money to afford a doctor-recommended medication.
About 23% of respondents reported such an issue a figure Gallup extrapolated to suggest 58 million Americans experiencing what it called medication insecurity.
Meanwhile, a from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that of adults taking prescription drugs, about 1 in 4 reported some difficulty in affording that medication. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
The findings drive home a crucial point: Broadly, Warrens number matches what the data shows. If anything, it could be even worse than she suggested.
Our Ruling
Warren said that last year 36 million Americans forwent a prescription because of the cost barrier.
The data supports her claim. And other research further paints a picture of widespread affordability problems.
We rate this claim True.
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