Prescription Affordability in
America
Jayden, Jewel, Olivia, Moyan, Alina
The Issue
The inability to afford out of pocket prescriptions costs has reached record
highs in the U.S., with a widening gap for low-income households, as well as
Black and Hispanic Americans.
Resulting in →
● people pushing off care in fear of not being able to afford health care
costs
● need to focus on other costs such as food and housing
The intersection of all these costs make it difficult for an individual to keep
up with healthcare, increasing the chances of them facing a worse outcome
in the future, only perpetuating a cycle of poor health and economic
instability
Data
From January 2022 to January 2023, more than 4,200 drug products had price increases, of
which 46 percent were larger than the rate of inflation. Average drug price increase over the
course of the period was 15.2%, which translates to $590 per drug product
Sociology Concept
● Boundary Work
○ Process of creating and maintaining social, cultural, and professional
boundaries between differing cultural groups in an attempt to limit those
groups access to the resources another group has.
● Creating a sense of “other”
○ Chronic illnesses are correlated with unclean lifestyle habits.
○ Justifies rising prices for those with chronic medical ailments.
● Lowering prices → chance for vulnerable populations to climb out of economic
instability
Solution
● The Reform Medicaid Drug Rebate Program enforces perscription
drug manufacturers that want their drug covered under Medicaid must
undergo a rebate agreement.
● This agreement ensures that the manufacturer will give a portion of the
drug cost to the state.
● The percentage of rebate given is 23.1%.
● By increasing this to 33.1%, drug manufacturers will keep prices low.
Methodology
state a policy hypotheses (increases rebates to 33.1%)
Define key Define data
Evaluate
indicators sources are
State a policy Establish an results
(drug prices, reliable, and
hypotheses evaluation (quantify the
accessibility, select
(increases framework effectiveness
expenditure, analytical
rebates to (DiD and of policy,
pharmaceutic methods (e.g
33.1%) interview) identify side
al company time series
effects)
behavior…) analysis)
1 2 3 4 5
References
Problem Slide: Making health care more affordable
Data slide: Inability to Pay for Healthcare Reaches Record High in U.S. | West Health
Changes in the List Prices of Prescription Drugs, 2017-2023 | ASPE
Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs | KFF
Products - Data Briefs - Number 470 - June 2023
Solution Slide: Policy Options to Reduce Prescription Drug Costs | Department of
Medicine News
Understanding the Medicaid Prescription Drug Rebate Program | KFF
Methodology Slide: Difference-in-Difference Estimation | Columbia Public Health