Nevadans see highest increase in healthcare costs among states
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - President Joe Biden will be in Las Vegas Wednesday to discuss prescription drug costs, which have risen quicker in Nevada than in any other state.
Over the last three decades of data available from the federal government, Nevadans went from paying $247 per year for drugs in 1991 to $1,236 in 2020.
“We pay more for prescription drugs than any major nation on Earth,” President Biden asserted during his State of the Union Address in February.
Las Vegas local Kristine Schachinger pays more than $800 a month for health insurance.
“I see my friends buy beautiful houses and go on these amazing trips,” she laments. “I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve got $15,000 this year that has to go toward basic medical.’”
Schachinger was diagnosed with Long COVID, which has made her other medical problems worse -- along with her bills.
“It varies between maybe $13,000 to $17,000 a year,” she said.
Perhaps the highest-profile healthcare cost increase for Americans is insulin.
“It costs the drug companies roughly $10 a vial to make that insulin,” President Biden said during his State of the Union speech. “Big Pharma has unfairly been charging people hundreds of dollars.”
On January 1 of this year, the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare was capped at $35 per month. Biden promises to go further than that.
“Let’s finish the job this time,” he said to the joint session in February. “Let’s cap the cost of insulin for everybody at $35.”
As America comes out of the pandemic, Schachinger predicts our health care costs will keep rising too fast for most people to keep pace.”
“We’re about to see, I think, in this country, this massive amount of people that need an excessive amount of care,” she said. “And they’re not going to be able to afford it.”
Drugs are not the only medical costs that have risen higher for Nevadans over the last three decades than in any other state. According to government data, the Silver State has also seen the steepest increase in the country for hospital bills, plus dental, nursing, and personal health care costs.
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