Medicare patients with serious illnesses pay an astounding amount of out-of-pocket costs for their prescription drugs, according to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Consider patients suffering from hepatitis C who are taking Zepatier. They pay a median annual price of $2,622 out-of-pocket for that medicine. And that's the low end. People suffering from prostate cancer pay $8,181 for Zytiga. And leukemia patients being treated with Idhifa rack up $16,551 a year