Who paid for prescription drugs in 2011?
According to Health Affairs, data for 2011 (the most recent year available) shows that the two primary CMS programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- paid for 32% of total retail drug spending. The private health-insurance share, which was 46.5% in 2011, peaked in 2001 at 51% and has been declining ever since.
For the second year, spending on outpatient prescription drugs grew more slowly than overall national health expenditures. In 2011, prescription drug spending grew by 2.9%
Healthcare reform reduced Medicaid spending. Medicaid spending declined by 3.0% in 2011, following a 1.4% drop in 2010.
And consumers paid even less. In 2011, consumers’ out-of-pocket expenses -- cash-pay prescriptions plus copayments and coinsurance -- shrank to an historical low 17% of total U.S. retail drug expenditures.
The complete Health Affairs report can be found here.
