The Impact of the US Food and Drug Administration Chlorofluorocarbon Ban on Out-of-pocket Costs and Use of Albuterol Inhalers Among Individuals With Asthma

Impact of Copayment Changes on Children's Albuterol Inhaler Use and Costs after the Clean Air Act Chlorofluorocarbon Ban

“…Although significant, the percentage point decrease in quarterly albuterol inhaler fills associated with a $10 increase in OOP costs in the Jena study was only 0.54 from a baseline of 17.2 fills per 100 children per quarter (Jena et al. ).…”

“…; Jena et al. ). It may be distressing for parents to see their children struggling with an asthma exacerbation such that they are more willing to spend the extra money on medication to relieve it, and parents may be price inelastic with respect to “necessary” medical goods for their children.…”

“…; Jena et al. ). However, these studies did not include comparison groups that were not exposed to a cost‐sharing change or explicitly examine changes before versus after the ban.…”

“…Data are limited on the impact of cost-sharing on acute medications such as rescue medications for asthma like albuterol, for which patients or parents may have different price elasticities (i.e., the degree to which the quantity used is responsive to changes in price) compared with chronic medications such as controller medications (Piette, Heisler, and Wagner 2004;Landsman et al 2005). Two studies, including one around the time of the CFC ban, have found that higher OOP costs for bronchodilators were associated with decreased use for adults and children (Ungar et al 2008;Jena et al 2015). However, these studies did not include comparison groups that were not exposed to a cost-sharing change or explicitly examine changes before versus after the ban.…”

Asthma 2015: The Year in Review

“…They also found that a $10 increase in out-of-pocket albuterol prescription costs decreased utilization by just under 1% for adults and by 0.5% for children, but this did not appear to affect asthma-related hospitalizations, emergency department visits, or outpatient visits. 23 Of the more than 6,500 papers related to clinical aspects of asthma and published between January and October 2015, a selection of them are reviewed. These highlight trends in asthma research, care, and epidemiology.…”