Last year all spending in the U.S. on prescription drugs rose by 11.7 percent over 2014, according to a report published in the current American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. The authors attribute the spending growth to sharp price hikes driven by new specialty medications and price gouging on older drugs that face few or no competitors. They also forecast an 11 to 13 percent increase in total drug expenditures this year.
At the same time, a study appearing last week found private insurers increased the portion of their total drug spending on specialty drugs from 11 percent of all prescriptions filled in 2003 to 43 percent in 2014. During this period, "patients' out-of-pocket costs for pricey drugs climbed 46 percent."
The obvious question during this presidential election year is what the two main candidates and their parties are doing to address this national issue.
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