Even the Wealthy: Elderly in the nation's tenth wealthiest county claim they can't afford their "life-saving" medication. I'm sure that a lot of that medication is expensive, but a lot of it probably isn't "life-saving," although doctors have come to paint just about every medication that way. Statins for cholesterol decrease the incidence of heart attacks by three percentage points, but they're sold to patients as drugs that will save their lives. When patients don't have to shoulder that cost, the truth about them gets glossed over. Physicians and patients would deal with these sorts of issues more honestly if they had to face their true costs.