Rising prescription drug costs are putting more pressures on patients with chronic and life-threatening conditions — Wisconsin Coalition of Aging & Health Groups CEO Rob Gundermann describes what this issue means for the health care system.

Rob Gundermann
CEO, Wisconsin Coalition of Aging & Health Groups

• In 2025, Here & Now presented a series of reports titled “Rx Uncovered” that explored how changes in health insurance practices and rising health care costs are leading to increasing difficulties among patients who rely on prescription medications to treat disease and maintain quality of life. This series was presented in a special hour-long episode that also featured an interview with Gunderman, who discussed the impacts of copay accumulators on patients and the status of state-level legislation to address these issues. He described how this insurance tool, which often leads to paying more out of pocket for their prescriptions, impacts how patients make health care decisions.
• Gundermann: “Well, a couple of things. One, the financial stress that it’s putting families under that just can’t afford this. But the other piece is I’ve had people tell me they’re not going to take their medication anymore. I had a friend of mine who has MS and he says ‘If they put one of these copay accumulators on my policy, I’m going to stop taking my medication.’ So, you then end up with more problems with their health. And I don’t think that’s a cost-saving measure — by taking this money, they may get some money out of it. But I think in the long run, the increased health expenses that you’re going to have for people if they stop taking their medications are going to offset that. We’ve seen in these stories people don’t know until they’re so far along that they owe all this extra money. There’s no ability to have a payment plan for your medications, so you either get it or you don’t.”

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