In regard to the comments about the percentage of people who can't afford their medications, I would point out that from my 17-year career working in the emergency department, it is estimated that about 60% of emergency department prescriptions are not filled. The reasons are many, of course, but much of it is that there are many indigent people who receive their only primary care from the emergency department.
Whether you can make the assumption or bit of a leap of faith that this is due to cost, I would think that a substantial part of it indeed is. We do know there are substantial costs to the system from non-compliance. I've been throwing the following example around liberally, and pardon the pun, but if someone can't afford insulin, one hospital visit for DKA will probably pay for a lifetime of insulin. If you add the costs of limb amputations, blindness, and the fact they need to be on dialysis, the savings become much more apparent.
Therefore, when you talk about the cost to government of doing this, has there been any thought of factoring in the potential cost savings by recognizing that these indigent people, who are a small proportion of the population, account for a large health care expenditure?