Over 65% of American adults will take drugs today
This article is part of a series of insights into what an Average American life really looks like.
Last week, when the news broke that Amazon was launching Amazon Pharmacy, I was shocked to discover that the Average American adult has an active drug prescription. In fact, over 65% of American adults are prescribed to ingest at least one drug today. Even when we include children of all ages, a whopping 46% of all Americans have an active drug prescription.
No wonder Amazon wants in…
A glimpse into the prescription market:
Spending on U.S. prescription medications is approaching $500 billion a year and growing up to 7% annually, according to IQVIA, a provider of health data. Roughly 60% of American adults have at least one chronic illness, such as heart disease, cancer or diabetes, and 40% have two or more, according to the CDC.
The retail drug market is dominated by the large pharmacy chains, CVS and Walgreens.
Amazon’s entrance comes two years after acquiring start-up PillPack for $753 million (unofficial number). PillPack is projected to generate around $1 billion this year. For Amazon, with recorded sales of over $230 billion last year, PillPack doesn’t move the needle at its current size. But that’s not why Amazon bought the company. The value for Amazon is in the promise of plugging the delivery network into the giant e-commerce machine, especially when considering that the average PillPack user in 2018 was worth $5,000 in revenue.
That’s far more than the average Prime member, who spends about $1,300 a year on Amazon after the $119 annual subscription.
Americans spend more on prescription medicine than citizens of any other country:
Americans are good at popping pills
Around 48 percent of the U.S. population used one or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days, according to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics.
- Percent of persons using at least one prescription drug in the past 30 days: 48.4%
- Percent of persons using three or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days: 24%
- Percent of persons using five or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days: 12.6%
Physicians and Hospitals supply drugs an overwhelming amount of the time
Physician office visits:
- Number of drugs ordered or provided: 2.9 billion
- Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 73.9%
Hospital emergency department visits:
- Number of drugs given or prescribed: 368.5 million
- Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 81.1%
Providing over 3 billion drugs to a nation of 330 million seems excessive, right? Physicians in particular seem to be oversubscribing medicinal drugs. For all of our sakes, we will avoid diving deep into the opioid crisis in this article but various research has suggested physician negligence has been a leading contributor. Too often people patients are prescribed 30 or 60 pills when 5 or 20 would have been adequate. Prescriptions are commonly filled in multiples of 30; 30 days for a month supply of a once a day medication, 90 days for a mail-order prescription. It is the leftover pills that sit forgotten in the medicine cabinet which often lead to trouble, however that is a topic for another time.
The most commonly used types of prescription drugs by American adults
The top five most common types of prescription drugs used by American adults aged 40–79 varied by age.
Among U.S. adults aged 40–59:
- Antidepressants (15.4%)
- Lipid-lowering drugs, for cholesterol (13.9%)
- Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, for blood pressure (11.4%)
- Analgesics, for pain relief (11.1%)
- Antidiabetic agents (8.8%)
Among U.S. adults aged 60–79:
- Lipid-lowering drugs (45.0%)
- Antidiabetic agents (23.6%)
- Beta blockers, for high blood pressure or heart disease (22.3%)
- ACE inhibitors (21.3%)
- Proton pump inhibitors (16.9%)
Tell me it’s worth it?
I can’t... At least, not for Americans. Although the U.S. leads the way in per capita prescription drug spend, the country does not even rank among the top countries for average life expectancy.
Number 25 on the list? You guessed it… Slovenia!
Author’s note: It’s upsetting to think about how the healthcare market has evolved over time and the system that is built to hold us down. Unfortunately, curing patients is bad for business. Medication is much more lucrative. Have a great day!
P.S. Hit the Follow button and inspire a more pleasant topic next week!