Comparison of prescription drug costs in the United States and the United kingdom, part 4: antibiotics in young children.

Objectives: To compare the usage and cost of antibiotics in the United States and United Kingdom in children younger than 10 years.

Methods: A follow up of some 160,000 young children enrolled in U.S. private health insurance companies and an equal number in general practices in the United Kingdom in 2009, based on two prospectively designed and documented electronic medical databases.

Main Results: Percentage of young children in each country prescribed an antibiotic together with the estimated total annual cost.

Principal Conclusions: In the United States, ~75% of privately insured children were prescribed one or more antibiotics compared with an estimated 50% in the United Kingdom. The annual cost was more than five times higher in the United States compared with the United Kingdom The usage and cost of antibiotics in young privately insured children is far higher in the United States than in the United Kingdom, where the government pays the cost of prescription drugs.