Most Americans are worried about prescription drug affordability

According to a March KFF poll, prescription drug costs are a major concern for many Americans. Currently, two-thirds of U.S. adults report taking prescription medication, and 31% report taking four or more medications.

In the poll, a majority of U.S. adults (59%) said they are worried about affording prescription drugs for themselves or their families — the highest percentage since KFF first polled the question in 2018. The share of adults worried about prescription drug costs was higher among those with annual household incomes less than $40,000 (67%) and those taking at least four prescription medications (64%).

In addition, 43% of U.S. adults said they did not take a medication as prescribed in the last year due to costs. This includes 31% who said they took an over-the-counter medication instead of getting a prescription filled, 27% who did not fill a prescription, and 19% who cut pills in half or skipped doses of medicine. Lower-income, uninsured, Black, and Hispanic adults were more likely to report taking these cost-saving measures.

To help reduce the cost of prescription medication, around 40% of adults have used a discount card or coupon, such as through GoodRx or from a manufacturer, or compared prescription drug prices online to find the lowest-cost option. Fewer adults said they purchased a lower-cost drug from an online pharmacy (15%) or directly from a manufacturer's website (8%).

Epic introduces new prescription price transparency tool

Epic is launching a new tool called Prescription Marketplace to help clinicians and patients compare the cost of medications at different pharmacies and find the lowest-cost option before a prescription is sent.

"We heard from customers and also saw broadly that patients were having difficulty taking their medications as prescribed, just due to cost," said Joel Jones, VP of clinicals and therapeutics and patient safety officer at Epic.

The tool builds upon Epic's Real-Time Prescription Benefit feature, which shows physicians what a prescription will cost with insurance and offers generic alternatives. In 2025, this feature helped patients save more than $250 million.

Through the new Prescription Marketplace tool, clinicians and patients will be able to see pharmacies' cash prices for prescription medications alongside the cost of the prescription through an insurance plan. Depending on the medication, the patient's insurance plan, and pharmacy, paying cash could be the more affordable option.

Epic worked with several companies to build the tool, including Amazon Pharmacy, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, Costco, and Eli Lilly.

"We have been tackling this cost problem for quite a while through our [Real-Time Prescription Benefit], but what it didn't include were these cash-pay options through Amazon or Eli Lilly, for example," Jones said. "We knew we needed to both connect that data up and then make that visible within the clinic workflow."

The Prescription Marketplace "will give patients transparency," said Mark Cuban, co-founder of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs. "If someone's insurance says a prescription costs $500 but they can buy the exact same drug for $100 at CostPlusDrugs.com, they should know that before they leave the doctor's office."

Commentary

According to Advisory Board's Chloe Bakst, the organization "has been watching the growth of cash-pay pharmacies for years, often with a degree of skepticism in their ability to truly disrupt traditional pharmacy models." She also noted that new entrants into the patient care journey can introduce opportunities for care fragmentation.

However, Epic's Prescription Marketplace may help decrease care fragmentation by ensuring that clinicians receive fill data regardless of where patients ultimately get their prescriptions. "This [function] is really important for clinical decision-making," Jones said.

"While Epic's new prescription transparency price tool will make it easier for providers and patients to compare prices, which could in turn improve affordability and medication adherence, the real unlock here is the ability to have fill data from cash-pay pharmacies pushed back into the patient's EHR," Bakst said. "That reduction in fragmentation and seamless integration into existing clinical infrastructure will not only inform clinical decision-making for providers but also address one of the core underlying barriers to greater adoption of cash-pay pharmacies."

"It will be exciting to see how the 2027 rollout progresses," Bakst added.