“A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that average annual out-of-pocket prescription drug spending for workers and family members decreased from a recent high of $167 in 2009 to $144 in 2014. Most of the decline in out-of-pocket spending occurred between 2009 and 2012 and is likely due to generic substitution for popular drugs that lost patent protection. The decline in out-of-pocket-spending continued from 2012 to 2014 with nearly two-thirds of the decline during this period attributable to the Affordable Care Act provision requiring most plans to cover contraception without cost sharing. At the same time, the relatively small share of people spending more than $1,000 a year out-of-pocket on prescription drugs rose in the past decade, from 1 percent in 2004 to 2.8 percent in 2014, and their spending accounted for a third (33%) of all out-of-pocket drug spending by enrollees in large-employer plans in 2014, the study finds. Focusing on drug spending for people who are insured through a large employer’s health plan, the analysis examined a sample of claims from large employer plans contained in the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database.”