Health Care & Prescription Drugs News

SACRAMENTO—Uninsured consumers in Sacramento pay 68 percent more for common prescription drugs than the federal government does for the same medications, according to, “Paying the Price: The High Cost of Prescription Drugs for Uninsured Californians” a new California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) Education Fund report released today.

“It’s an outrage that those who can least afford prescription drugs—California’s 6.6 million uninsured—pay the highest prices,” said Emily Clayton, CALPIRG Education Fund’s Health Care Advocate. "HMOS, the federal government, and other large purchasers use their buying power to negotiate better prices, but when the uninsured go to fill their prescriptions, they go it alone.”

In the spring of 2006, CALPIRG Education Fund teamed up with state PIRGs across the country to survey more than 600 pharmacies in 35 cities to determine how much uninsured consumers pay for ten commonly prescribed drugs. The prices where then compared with prices paid by the federal government which uses its buying power to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices and with prices charged in Canadian pharmacies. The survey examined prices for a range of prescription drugs used by Americans of all ages including antibiotics, allergy medication, anti-depressants, and cholesterol-lowering medication.

Among the survey’s key findings:

• In Sacramento, uninsured consumers pay 68% more than what the federal government pays for the same drugs, ranking the city second out of the 35 cities we surveyed.

• The uninsured in city pay more than twice as much for their medication at local drug stores as they would pay at a Canadian pharmacy. The hormone replacement drug Premarin costs 557% more in Sacramento drug stores than it does at a Canadian pharmacy.

• Nationally, based on the 35 cities we surveyed, uninsured Americans pay 60 percent more on average than what the federal government pays for same drugs and twice as much as they would pay at a Canadian pharmacy.

“These results confirm what California consumers already know – we’re paying the price for the drug industry’s high profits. Too many people are forced to go without the medicines they need because they just can’t afford to go to the pharmacy,” said Clayton.

To address the high cost of prescription drugs, CALPIRG Education Fund called for increasing the availability of low cost generic drugs by closing loopholes that allow drug makers to hold on to their patents and by tightening oversight of drug makers’ marketing tactics, which drive up demand for the newest and more expensive drugs regardless of effectiveness. CALPIRG Education Fund also supports creating prescription drug buying pools at the state level to allow individuals, businesses and the government to use their combined buying power to negotiate lower drug prices with manufacturers.

"Some of these reforms may be a bitter pill for the pharmaceutical industry, but they are simply good medicine for runaway prescription drug costs," concluded Clayton.

CALPIRG Education Fund is an independent voice for Californians. When corporate wrongdoing threatens our health and safety or violates fundamental principles of fairness and justice, CALPIRG Education Fund stands up for California consumers. We conduct investigative research, publish reports and exposés and, when necessary, take corporate wrongdoers to court.

Our results-oriented approach has won victories for Californians on a wide range of issues including health care reform, prescription drug prices, consumer privacy and product safety. The full report is available at www.calpirg.org.