Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2228

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

De Bourbon L.
Poll: Many Don't Fill Prescriptions
AP Business Writer 2001 Nov 28

Full text:

Rising co-payments for prescription drugs are preventing some Americans from following their doctors’ orders. A recent survey of 1,010 adults by Harris Interactive found 22 percent didn’t fill at least one prescription in the last year because of the cost.

Although that’s a minority of those polled, many people still are not getting the prescriptions they need, posing a serious health problem, said the Rochester, N.Y. based market research and consulting firm.

Fourteen percent said that during the last year, they had taken a drug in smaller doses than prescribed to cut costs and 16 percent said they taken a medicine less frequently to save money.

The Harris survey also found that people living in low-income households were more likely to alter their doses than others. However, 12 percent of those with income of $75,000 or more said they did not fill a prescription in the last year because of the cost.