Uninsured Pay Steep Price For Rx Drugs
A staggering 46 million Americans under the age of 65 have no health insurance and millions more have policies that either lack prescription drug coverage or require high deductibles and co-payments.

To make matters worse, prescription drug costs are steadily rising faster than the rate of inflation, making it increasingly difficult for the uninsured and underinsured to afford the medications they need.

In the spring of 2006, Florida PIRG teamed up with state PIRGs across the country to survey more than 600 pharmacies in 35 cities. The survey compared how much uninsured consumers pay for common drugs to the prices paid by the federal government, which uses its buying power to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies.

The survey data revealed that uninsured consumers in Tallahassee and Miami are paying at least 57 percent more for common prescription drugs than what the drug companies charge the federal government. Moreover, uninsured Floridians in Tallahassee and Miami pay almost twice as much for their medication at local drug stores as they would pay at a Canadian pharmacy.

“When diagnosed with asthma, I found that without insurance, I could not afford the medications I needed,” said Kenn Ross, a self-employed carpenter from Tallahassee.

To ensure that Floridians have access to the medications they need, Florida PIRG is calling on leaders to create state prescription drug buying pools to allow individuals, businesses and the government to use their combined buying power to negotiate lower drug prices.