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Prescription drug spending is one of the fastest growing components of health care expenditures in the nation. Last year alone, the prices for nearly 200 brand-name drugs most commonly used by older Americans jumped by 7.4 percent—more than two and half times the rate of inflation!

At the same time, half of New Yorkers age 50-64 are concerned about affording their prescription drugs, and close to 20 percent have either not filled or delayed taking a prescription to save money on their medications, according to an AARP New York survey released this year.

Now consider that drug companies spend $7 billion influencing doctors to prescribe new and more expensive drugs rather than less expensive but equally effective ones, such as generics. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 90 percent of the marketing budgets of pharmaceutical companies are aimed directly at doctors.

According to an AARP New York membership survey, nearly all members—97 percent—want AARP New York to work on making prescription drugs more affordable.

AARP supports a number of legislative proposals to provide New Yorkers with access to affordable prescription drugs through marketing and purchasing reforms. These measures, if enacted into law, will:

• Require drug companies to disclose the gifts they make to doctors
and other health care providers to convince them to prescribe new
high-cost, brand-name medications when equally effective, less
expensive, older or generic drugs may be available. This legislation
has been introduced by Senator George D. Maziarz (S.2971) and
Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried (A.7468).

• Prohibit the sale of physician drug profiling data for marketing
purposes (S.2056-Senator John A. DeFrancisco; A.7645-Assemblyman
Kevin A. Cahill). This data is often used by drug companies
to identify which doctors prescribe new high-cost, brand-name
medications. Banning the sale of this data for these purposes would
help lower drug costs by helping to ensure that drugs are prescribed
based on how they effectively and safely treat a patient.

• Allow the state to bulk purchase its prescription drugs and create
access for people who do not have prescription drug coverage or
have gaps in their coverage (S.316-Senator Martin J. Golden;
A.3848-Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried).