Nearly a quarter of every dollar collected for health insurance goes to pay for prescription drugs.

This is due, in large part, to a rapid increase in costs.

From 1980 to 2020, per capita drug spending rose by more than 2,105 percent, from just over $50 to nearly $1,150.

In 2023, the U.S. spent more than $722 billion on prescription drugs. That was up 13.6 percent from 2022, making it the largest jump in 20 years.

And at more than 22 cents on the dollar, nothing is more responsible for North Carolina’s high health insurance premiums than prescription drugs. Not hospital visits. Not emergency room costs. Not trips to the doctor’s office.

Rising drug costs directly coincide with staggering profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers.

From 2000 and 2018, 35 large drug manufacturers had a combined revenue of $11.5 trillion, with a gross profit of $8.6 trillion.

Their median net income was almost twice as high as 357 non-pharma S&P 500 companies.

At the same time, 54 percent of North Carolinians say they are worried about affording their medicine.

Concerns about costs have lead 1 in 3 people in North Carolina to not fill a prescription, cut pills in half, or skip a dose.

Many states have taken action to address high drug costs. To date, North Carolina has not been among them.

The Affordable Healthcare Coalition of North Carolina is committed to advocating for state-level policies that will lower the cost of medicine for people in our state.