Rx Copay Inflation Ranks as Top Health Concern in 2004

Patients worried about rising healthcare costs are increasingly citing higherprescription drug copay charges.

Consumers responding to an onlinesurvey by Weiss Ratings ranked risingRx copays as the biggest change intheir health insurance expenses lastyear. According to the researchers, betterthan 1 in 3 Americans now considershigher drug copays as the most burdensomeincrease in health expenses.

Those findings are not surprising inview of the results of a separate studyof consumers with prescription druginsurance by the Kaiser Family Foundation.That research found that overthe past 4 years copayments for genericdrugs have increased by an averageof more than 50%, while brand-namedrug copays have jumped between50% and 90%.

Mr. Rankin is a freelance medical writer.