Forty-eight percent of Americans on meds making risky health care tradeoffs

As a result of the flagging economy, Americans are making risky tradeoffs that could be dangerous to their health, according to Consumer Reports’ annual prescription drug poll. Forty-eight percent of Americans who currently take a prescription medicine told pollsters they’d cut health-care costs, for example, by putting off a doctor’s visit or medical procedure, declining tests, or ordering cheaper drugs from outside of the U.S. That’s an increase of 9 percentage points since 2010.