While these plans may help people save money on their monthly health insurance premiums, they also require participants to pay higher deductibles for most health care before their insurance coverage kicks in. Simply put: with certain exceptions such as preventive care, individuals and families have to pay the full cost of their health care, including medications, until the minimum plan deductible is met.

Because there are restrictions that prevent sponsors of most HDHPs from lowering out-of-pocket expenses before patients meet their minimum deductibles, more Americans are seeing—and feeling the impact of—high prices set by pharmaceutical manufacturers for prescription drugs.