For many Americans, the cost of regularly taking and filling their medications is too much. So much so, 44% of respondents in a new online poll say that within the last year, they did not purchase at least one medically necessary prescription because of cost.

That's according to an online flash poll of over 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by PawnGuru​, an online marketplace that conducts regular surveys on a range of topics affecting low-income and under-banked Americans.

That's higher than previous polls that have found Americans struggling with prescription drug costs. A similar 2018 survey by GoodRx found that about a third of Americans admitted they have skipped filling a prescription one or more times because of the cost.

Last year, Kaiser Family Foundation found 29% of Americans failed to take their medications as prescribed because of the cost, with about 19% of respondents saying they did not fill the prescription and 12% saying they cut pills in half or skipped a dose.

Overall, nearly six in 10 Americans report taking at least one prescription drug, according to Kaiser. Unsurprisingly, the more prescriptions you have, or the more each drug costs, the harder it becomes to afford.

In the latest PawnGuru poll, about 20% of respondents say they're currently paying more than $100 a month out of pocket for their prescriptions. And 40% of those surveyed say their insurer has declined to cover a prescription at least once in the past year.

Across the board, the cost of prescription drugs rose 3% year-over-year from December 2018 to 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics's Consumer Price Index. And individual drug costs can be even higher. The cost of Humira, which is used to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, increased by 7.4%, according to GoodRx. Birth control medication Lo Loestrin FE increased by 5% and psoriasis treatment Cosentyx increased by 17.59% between 2019 and 2020.

In fact, GoodRx found that over 100 manufacturers raised the price for 619 brand-name drugs by an average of 5.2% in January 2020.

Source: GoodRx list price index, a model that tracks list price changes. According to the model, the average list price for brand and generic medications has increased by 33.6% since 2014.

Refusing to purchase costly drugs can have real health consequences. There are about 125,000 deaths per year in the U.S. due to medication non-adherence. Additionally, not adhering to recommended medications to treat chronic diseases can actually increase your overall health care spending because you may need more expensive treatments as opposed to just maintenance, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, the CDC estimates this costs Americans about $300 billion a year.