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CDC: Adults in US Skipping Medicine to Save Money
Survey findings show lack of insurance, high-cost medicines have health impacts
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer at Common DreamsResults from a survey out Tuesday are underscoring the repercussions lack of healthcare insurance and high drug costs have on adults in the US.
Results from a CDC survey show how cash-strapped adults in the U.S. are skipping doses or delaying refilling prescriptions of medicines. (Photo: Images Money/flickr)Outlining the findings from their 2011 National Health Interview Survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that many adults are skipping their prescribed medicine as a way to save money, but which the CDC says can lead to "poorer health status and increased emergency room use, hospitalizations, and cardiovascular events."
Other cost-saving measures included patients asking their doctor for a lower cost medication or buying the prescription medicine from out of the country.
Source: CDC/NCHS, National Health Interview Survey, 2011.
The CDC found that the uninsured (23.1%) were more likely than those with private coverage (8.7%) and those with Medicaid (13.6%) to not take medication as prescribed, as the following graph shows:
Source: CDC/NCHS, National Health Interview Survey, 2011.
Unsurprisingly, poverty was also a large factor in whether a patient took medicine as prescribed.
Among adults 18 - 64, 19.7% of those classified as poor did not take their medicine as prescribed in order to save money, compared to 9.6% of those in that age range classified as not poor.