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Even though they have Medicare insurance, many seniors skip or skip prescription drugs because of cost, a new US study finds.

About 20% of seniors took less medication than prescribed or no medication at all, the researchers said.

Editor’s Note: 4 medical doctors made an amazing discovery

“We also found that more respondents want to talk to their doctors about drug costs and if their doctors are available, they want to use tools to estimate drug costs,” said Stacey Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University. Nashville, Tenn.

For the study, Dusetzina and her colleagues surveyed more than 2,000 men and women age 65 and older by phone and online.

About 20% of those surveyed said cost kept them from following their prescription drug regimen. About 9% said that they did not meet the basic needs to buy their medicines and about 5% said that the cost of medicines had left them in debt.

Meanwhile, 89% said they were comfortable or neutral to check before visiting a doctor to discuss medical costs, and nearly 90% said they would like their doctor to use a drug price alert tool.

Patients said that they are concerned if the price is not correct and they are very upset if the actual price of the drug is higher than what their doctor estimated. In fact, the researchers found that 80% of them would have to reconsider their decision to take the drug if the cost was higher.

Most patients become angry if their doctor knows the price of the drug but doesn’t talk to them about it, Dusetzina’s team notes.

The report was published on May 18 by JAMA Network Open.

“I wish I could say I was surprised, but the reality is that this is a finding that we’ve seen in other work, and it’s a finding that medical professionals see every day,” said Dr. Adam Gaffney. He did not participate in the study. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston and the former president of the Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates immediately extending Medicare to all.

Drug prices are primarily related to copays and out-of-pocket costs, he said.

“Even if you have a Medicare Part D drug plan, the discounts, the copays, the deductibles can be very high,” Gaffney said. “I don’t think this is a problem [of] Over 65 population only. In fact, I think that if you look at a younger population that is privately insured, you can actually have the same negative results.

Out-of-pocket costs can be high, especially for new patented drugs, but they can also be high for some generic drugs as drug prices continue to rise, he said.

“We know these price increases will be reflected in what people pay when they go to the pharmacy,” Gaffney said. “We know that this often leaves patients behind or not filling at all or making other sacrifices.”

Most doctors do not know the price that patients pay for medicine.

“As a physician, you want to know what the out-of-pocket costs are,” Gaffney said. “You want to know what that means for the patient. So, I think that kind of information infrastructure can have some benefits. But I think what it doesn’t help you do is ultimately want to prescribe drugs. That’s better for patients.”

There are programs available to patients that can reduce out-of-pocket costs, Gaffney said. These include Medicare programs, private companies that help lower costs for some generic drugs, and drug companies that have special programs to make new drugs more affordable.

But solving the problem of high drug costs will ultimately require a cultural change that frees up all drugs, he said.

“Things can happen in the doctor’s office, but at the end of the day, what we want is systemic change,” Gaffney said. “There’s a growing appetite to really improve the system because there’s something uncivilized about letting people go without essential drugs just because they can’t pay the copays.”

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