Drug prices are high.

A recent Pew Charitable Trusts study found that Americans spent $65.8 billion44 out of pocket in 2016 for retail prescription drugs, up from $59.5 billion in 2012. The high cost of prescription drugs is a significant driver of medical debt45 because Americans are increasingly reliant on medication to manage long-term chronic conditions.46 Additionally, the high cost of prescription drugs has forced many Americans to take drastic measures, including foregoing taking their medications as prescribed or traveling abroad in order to save on medications. A 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that 11.4 percent47 of adults aged 18 to 64 did not take their prescription drugs as prescribed in order to reduce how much they spent on their medications. And, as NPR recently reported, “The U.S government estimates that close to 1 million48 Americans in California alone go to Mexico annually for health care, including to buy prescription drugs.” In May 2019, a group of Americans49 living with Type 1 diabetes traveled to Canada to purchase insulin and call on the U.S. government to regulate the cost of lifesaving drugs. The costs associated with traveling abroad make it logistically and financially impractical for most Americans. Further, traveling abroad presents certain health risks given that some countries have lax drug certification standards compared with FDA standards.