Americans spent more than $309 billion on prescription drugs in 2015, which is up 8.5 percent from the year before. The average price of brand-name drugs has risen more than 98 percent over the last five years, according to mail-order pharmacy company Express Scripts. Today, the average person shells out nearly $1,400 per year for prescriptions. Half a million Americans rack up more than $50,000 per year in drug costs.
