Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Spending and Healthcare Accessibility in the United States

Rising healthcare costs in the United States have made affordability a growing concern, especially for prescription drugs. Out-of-pocket spending puts a financial burden on individuals and may affect whether they seek medical care when needed. While existing research has looked at healthcare costs more broadly, it has not looked much at how much people pay for prescription drugs and how that affects their ability to get the care they need. This study investigates the relationship between out-of-pocket prescription drug spending and healthcare accessibility using a cost-sharing framework. Using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data, a logistic regression model is applied to estimate how changes in drug spending influence the likelihood of delaying medical care. The findings show a consistent, though specification-sensitive, association between out-of-pocket drug spending and healthcare access: higher spending is significantly associated with delayed care in unadjusted models and with inability to afford medications and broader medical care after full controls are added, though the association with delayed care does not retain statistical significance in the fully adjusted model. Additional evidence of spillover effects suggests that higher medication spending may reduce the use of other healthcare services. Overall, the results highlighted the broad impact of prescription drug costs on healthcare utilization, implying that policies aimed at reducing out-of-pocket spending could play a significant role in improving access to care and addressing social disparities in healthcare outcomes.