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Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen

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When it comes to your health, the Bill Clinton of old shouldn't be your role model. The former U.S. president needed a quadruple coronary bypass in 2004 after he decided to quit taking a cholesterol-lowering statin drug.

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Daniel St. Louis photo

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, photographed in Moncton on Tuesday, needed heart surgery a few years ago after he stopped taking a statin drug.

He's not the only one. New polls indicate that many Americans are making the same costly mistake: passing up needed medications - though in their case, often for financial reasons (not likely Bill's concern). There's powerful new evidence that suddenly stopping drugs for chronic health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and asthma can be deadly. And even if skipping them doesn't kill you, it will certainly cost you more than if you'd kept taking your meds:

* Stopping statins, such as Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor or even Niacin, like Bill, raises your death risk by 16 per cent over one year, and it might increase it more than 50 per cent in the two weeks after you stop them - by fueling rebound inflammation and making plaque in artery walls more likely to rupture.

* Quitting blood sugar drugs makes people with diabetes 23 times more likely to land in the hospital and six times more likely to die, according to a Denver Veterans Affairs study.

* Skipping blood pressure drugs increases the risk for a heart attack by 35 per cent in the next year, Australian researchers say.

* Missing asthma medication can land you in big trouble: 60 per cent of hospital stays for asthma are due to skipped meds, report doctors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

* Quitting even aspirin - when it's being taken to cut your risk of a blood clot - triples heart attack risk in the next month, according to an Italian analysis of more than 50,000 people.

Fortunately, there are more ways than ever to avoid paying top dollar for drugs - and none of them involves meeting someone in a dark alley with a $100 bill. If one of these strategies doesn't work for you, try another and another, until you find a way to bring costs down rather than falling into an even more expensive, more dangerous gap:

* Ask your doctor if there's a cheaper drug that does the same thing. Two out of three docs never discuss price when prescribing a new drug or writing out a refill. Bring it up yourself. Also, ask if your doc has samples before buying a month's worth of a new drug.

* Stunned by a big bill at the pharmacy? Don't walk away. Ask the pharmacist to call your physician about money-saving alternatives before you accept your filled prescription - or leave it on the counter. You might have to wait another 10 minutes, but it could save you $50 or more.

* Ask about splitting "double-strength" pills. While this only works with certain meds - talk with your doc or pharmacist first - when it does, you can save up to 50 per cent per prescription. Get half as many pills at twice the dosage you normally take, then use an inexpensive pill splitter (available at pharmacies for $10 or less) to slice them in half .

* Move your prescriptions to the most affordable pharmacy. Budget retailers like Wal-Mart offer many generics. If possible, move all of your prescriptions to the same place so the pharmacists there can help you watch for potential drug interactions.

The You Docs - Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz - www.RealAge.com are authors of 'YOU: Being Beautiful - The Owner's Manual to Inner and Outer Beauty.' Their column runs Saturday.