Is Cost-Related Non-Adherence to Medical Care Unique to the USA?

Abstract

Cost-Related Non-Adherence (CRN) to medical care is a serious and persistent challenge in the USA. For example, twenty-six percent of the elderly does not take medication as prescribed due to a cost barrier [1]. This is not surprising, as many elderly patients depend on a small amount of fixed income from social security and struggle on a day-to-day basis to make difficult choices between meeting the basic needs of daily life and filling prescriptions. However, cost-related non-adherence to medication is prevalent across adult age strata. For example, 35 million (19%) Americans aged between 19 and 64 had not filled a prescription because of cost in 2014 [2].