You're gonna need a bigger wallet, or a tighter belt.
One-third of Americans who regularly take prescription medication are seeing price hikes this year—$40 extra for an order of those drugs, on average—and are reacting by cutting back on going to the movies, eating out or buying groceries.
A smaller fraction, one in 10 prescription users, are paying a stunning extra $100 per order in out-of-pocket costs for their medication, according to a new Consumer Reports poll. The price hikes have prompted some to cut corners with how they use their drugs, which in turn can negatively affect their health.
"For whatever reason, raw material shortage or some other problem, literally overnight, we'll see a dramatic increase," Chris Roberts, operations manager for Liberty Pharmacy in Austin, Texas, told Consumer Reports.
The poll's results underscore the fact that even as health insurance coverage has significantly expanded under Obamacare, and as overall health spending has increased only moderately in recent years, price increases for prescription medication and customers' out-of-pocket responsibility for those drugs has become a bigger problem for many people.