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WHEREAS, with three-in-five Americans taking at least one prescription drug per day, the need for affordable prescription drugs is felt at all demographic levels, but most acutely by lower- and moderate-income and elderly citizens; and,
WHEREAS, the continually rising costs of prescriptions drugs drive up the cumulative healthcare prices for all citizens and places numerous cost burdens on the economy and state and federal governments; and,
WHEREAS, spending on prescription drugs currently accounts for almost 20 percent of healthcare costs, with prescription spending growing at a faster rate than any other part of healthcare; and,
WHEREAS, a 2016 report released by the AARP Public Policy Institute found that as recently as 2013, the average annual cost of widely-used generic prescription drugs was $283, while average yearly cost of therapy for widely-used brand name prescription drugs was $2,960, or 18 times more. Furthermore, the average annual cost for widely-used specialty prescription drugs was 189 times higher, costing $53,384 annually. That same year, the median household income in the United States was only $52,250, the median income of Medicare beneficiaries was $23,500, and the average Social Security retirement benefits amounted to $15,526; and,
WHEREAS, spending on specialty medicines, the handling, administration, or monitoring of which requires special or advanced training, increased by approximately $54 billion over the previous five years. This accounted for close to 73 percent of all spending growth on medicine, and as specialty drug pricing continues to increase faster than the Consumer Price Index, these drugs are predicted to account for a cumulative 44 percent of all drug spending by 2017; and,
WHEREAS, the recent surge in the price of EpiPens, the most commonly-used epinephrine auto injector used to treat anaphylaxis in the U.S., has brought renewed attention to the struggles that many individuals and families face when trying to ...
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