• “Drug prices directly affect consumers, and with the U.S. one year away from the 2020 election, presidential candidates will increasingly be asked to explain and defend their policy positions regarding rising drug costs.”
• “Close to nine in 10 U.S. adults report that the costs of prescription drugs are ‘usually much higher’ (69%) or ‘tend to be somewhat higher’ (20%) than what consumers should be paying for them.”
• “This erosion of trust is likely exacerbated by the estimated 58 million adults who have themselves been unable to afford prescribed drugs at least once in the last 12 months.”

Dovetailing with these results is a rising percentage of adults who report not having had enough money in the past 12 months to “pay for needed medicine or drugs that a doctor prescribed” to them. This percentage has increased significantly, from 18.9% in January 2019 to 22.9% in September. In all, the 22.9% represents about 58 million adults who experienced “medication insecurity,” defined as the inability to pay for prescribed medication at least one time in the past 12 months. The increase reflects a marked rise among women of over five percentage points to 27.5%, widening the gender gap to over nine points when compared with the 18.1% rate for men. And while data among both political independents and Republicans are statistically unchanged since September, medication insecurity among Democrats has risen over six points to 27.7%.