What Do You Know About Prescription Drug Costs?

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What Do Y'all Know About Prescription Drug Costs?

The Pew Charitable Trusts

This quiz was updated on February 28, 2018 to reflect new information.

Nearly eight in ten Americans believe that prescription drug prices are unreasonable, and many would support legislation to lower them. Merely what determines the cost of prescription drugs in the commencement place, and how much practice Americans really pay for these medications? Recall you know? Take our quiz to observe out!

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Thanks for taking the quiz, and testing your knowledge on drug prices. For more than information on Pew'due south drug spending research and to larn more than about drug spending and policy solutions, visit the Drug Spending Enquiry Initiative page. # social text : I scored {score} out of {total_questions}! What Practise You Know Near Prescription Drug Costs? # social url : http://pew.org/2ESFUR1 ?1 In 2016, Americans spent $3 trillion on personal health care, including hospital care, physician services, and medical products. How much of this went toward prescription drugs? - $477 million. - $4.7 billion. - $47 billion. + $477 billion. ! Americans are estimated to have spent $477 billion on retail prescription drugs in 2016, accounting for 17 per centum of total personal health expenditures (spending on an individual patient's wellness care, including infirmary care, physician services, prescriptions, and more). ?2 How much can a drug manufacturer raise the price of a drug each year? - 10 pct. - 100 percent. - 1,000 percent. + As much every bit it chooses. ! Drug companies are free to increase the price of a drug each year and face no federal restrictions in setting a new list toll. ?three Since 2012, U.S. spending on prescription drugs has risen thirty percent. What'due south driving these price increases? - New drugs designed to treat complex conditions are expensive. - Prices of existing prescription drugs are ascent. - Americans are using more prescription drugs. + All of the above. ! New name-brand drugs (on the market place for less than ii years) are the largest contributors to spending growth. These are often specialty products (including biologics, derived from living cells), which account for 33 percent of drug costs but less than ii percent of prescriptions. Many of these are used for conditions such equally cancer and autoimmune diseases. Yearly increases in the prices of brand drugs with no generic competitors also contribute to the ascent in spending. Finally, Americans are using more prescription drugs. In 2016, 4.v million prescriptions were dispensed in the U.Southward., a vii percent increase since 2011, with most half of people taking at least one prescription drug. In add-on, Americans over age fifty use more than prescription drugs; this demographic, which is growing, accounts for 35 pct of the population but lxx percent of all dispensed prescriptions. ?iv Do public or private health insurance programs spend more on retail prescription drugs? - Individual wellness insurance programs. + Public health insurance programs. ! In 2017, public health insurance programs spent slightly more than private ones on prescription drugs. The public programs accounted for nearly 44 percent ($147 billion), the largest share of which was Medicare (30 percent), followed by Medicaid (x percentage) and other public programs (iii percent). Individual health insurance programs, including both employer-based and individual coverage, spent about $144 billion on retail prescription drug costs, accounting for just nether 43 percent of retail prescription drug spending. - They spend near the aforementioned corporeality. ?5 How much does the boilerplate American spend out of pocket on retail prescription drugs each yr? - $3. - $37. + $137. ! In 2017, average out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs was $137 across all ages and insurance types. This is expected to rise to $190 by 2026. It's important to note that this is an average, and what patients pay varies by health plan. Nearly half of commercial plans at present include a deductible for prescription drugs, requiring patients to pay the listing price for a medication until they reach an out-of-pocket maximum. For patients taking loftier-cost specialty drugs, this tin can hateful paying thousands of dollars per month. Surveys testify that prescription drugs are becoming unaffordable for many people. A 2016 Kaiser Family unit Foundation poll found that 44 percent of respondents worried about affording the cost of their prescriptions, 21 percent did not fill a prescription due to cost, and 16 percent had cut pills or skipped doses of a prescription. Out-of-pocket costs are also a challenge for Medicare beneficiaries. In 2015, patients reaching the catastrophic coverage phase of Medicare's prescription drug benefit paid an average of $257 per month for each high-cost prescription drug, defined equally medications with an average cost of more than than $i,000 per month. - $1,370. ?6 The U.Due south. government spent an average of $1,011 per capita on prescription drugs in 2015. How much did information technology spend compared with other industrialized countries? - The U.S. spent half as much equally other industrialized countries. - The U.South. spent the aforementioned as other industrialized countries. + The U.Southward. spent about twice every bit much as other industrialized countries. ! Of these countries, the U.South. has the highest per capita spending on pharmaceuticals. In 2015, 19 industrialized countries spent an average of $452 per person; at $i,011 per capita, the Us spent more double that amount. - The U.S. spent near iv times as much as other industrialized countries ?7 Brand pharmaceuticals are more often than not more expensive in the U.Southward. than in other high-income countries. Can the U.S. purchase and import drugs from other countries? - Yes. + Sometimes, but only from certain countries and under certain circumstances. ! In some instances, the Nutrient and Drug Administration allows foreign drugs to be marketed in the United States. For case, during a drug shortage, FDA has allowed temporary importation of certain drugs after evaluating their quality and safety. The Department of Health and Human Services has the authority to allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada if they are safe and cost-effective enough; however, this has never been done. - No. ?8 What is the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole"? - The Medicare Part D deductible. + A coverage gap in the program in which patients pay a larger share of the cost of drugs. ! The Medicare Role D doughnut pigsty refers to a catamenia when Medicare Part D enrollees pay a larger share of drug costs for prescription drugs. The doughnut pigsty begins when an enrollee's annual drug costs attain $iii,700 and ends when catastrophic coverage begins, at most $8,000 of total drug spending. The Affordable Care Deed phases out the doughnut pigsty by 2020, reducing patients' out-of-pocket drug costs in the coverage gap. - A benefit menstruation for patients who accept reached an out-of-pocket threshold and are responsible for 5 pct of the cost of drugs. - A tasty reward for signing upwardly for Medicare Part D. ?9 Which are more than effective—make or generic prescription drugs? - Brand drugs. - Generic drugs. + They are equally constructive. ! In order for FDA to approve a generic drug, the manufacturer must prove the generic drug is "bioequivalent" to, or effectively the same as, the make drug. Generics must have the same agile ingredient and be identical in terms of dosage, safety, force, and style in which they are taken. - The more expensive pick. ?ten What is a "pharmacy benefit manager" (PBM)? - A contractor that manages a drug do good for a health plan. - A tertiary party that develops the list of drugs covered by a wellness plan. - An organization that negotiates prices with drug manufacturers. + All of the above. ! PBMs are hired as third-party administrators to handle prescription drug programs for insurers. PBMs contract with pharmacies, process pharmacy benefit claims, develop lists of covered drugs (formularies), and negotiate prices with drug manufacturers. PBMs practice the nuts-and-bolts work of making certain that people with health insurance receive their prescription drug benefits. Co-ordinate to the PBM merchandise clan, PBMs manage benefits for 266 million Americans.

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