Seniors drug plan has catch: Medicare users to lose free meds

By Jean P. Fisher
Raleigh News & Observer
Monday, Nov. 21, 2005


Some older adults who sign up for Medicare's new prescription drug coverage will lose the free medicine they now receive from pharmaceutical companies. But staying away from the new Medicare program may not allow them to keep it.

Why? A few drug companies, including Bristol Myers Squibb, have already said that because of new government regulations, their patient assistance programs will no longer be available to people enrolled in Medicare Part D, as the new coverage is called.

Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca have taken it further and said they will end their programs for Medicare members. Seniors and consumer advocates worry that other drug companies will do the same.

"I don't think we can ultimately rely on private companies to provide this benefit," said Gina Upchurch, executive director of Senior PHARMAssist, a Durham nonprofit that helps older adults with limited income pay for and manage their medicines.Patient assistance programs, which many pharmaceutical companies use to generate good will while raising awareness of their products, have become an important part of the health care safety net for the poor and uninsured.



http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/369712.html

Now there is a statement for the ages.

"Gotta run government like a business?"

At least since the Reagan years. "'Gotta run government like a business,' insists GOP Candidate for Office." I don't know how many times I heard this from local and national GOP politicians.

So now we hear "the truth," although many of us knew it was bullshit form the getgo.

We had to sign up with a medicare plan to get it back. They just dropped it and didn't let us know.

If the pharmaceutical companies do this, I won't be able to take my meds. I take four cardiac meds.

Lipitor being the most expensive. From what we're reading about the statins, we're beginning to think he'd be better off without it. Dangerous drugs. He has an appt with his cardiologist and we're going to have a serious discussion about why he really needs it.

That way if there are any side effects of Lipitor we can catch them before anything serious occurs.

As for Lipitor, I haven't found a plan yet that will pay any decent benefits for it. Remember that even if they do pay something on it, the full cost of it will count toward the $2250 limit they put on us.

The only way I can see that this abortion of a drug play will save money for us is if all your drugs are generic equivalents. I see my doc in two weeks and I've made a list of the generics to see which see thinks will work almost as well as the brand names. For example, a possible substitute for lipitor is Lovastatin, the generic for Mevacor, which is an older drug. But the research I've found on the net, including effectiveness studies, showed that the difference between Lipitor and Lovostatin is about three percent (43% vs 40% reduction in LDL cholesterol).

And when you look at the costs involved the alternatives are clear. When I priced at Walgreens under the BC/BS plan, Lipitor was$ 1060 a yr when purchased quarterly, while Lovastatin was $348 a yr when bought monthly. Both are the cheaper way to buy each.

If you buy Lipitor you've used up half of your annual drug allowance. The difference in cost will buy an awful lot of drugs. But it's up to you. Personally, I just can't afford the name brands. I hope all us seniors will go to the generics. That'll mean a humongous lot of money that won't pour into the coffers of the big Pharmathiefs.

All us seniors should demand that the congressional bastards that voted for this atrocity get their drugs thru the same plan they voted for us. I think we'd see some fast changes being made to this beast.

I don't recall them ever running any tests specific to the statin drug.

I do feel for what you have to go through to get your meds in the US. Our plans are being eroded here in Canada, but at least it goes the other way. If you have a particular income and spend a certain amount eg. 2000, the rest is covered.

worry with the statins, liver damage. Been on the statins for eleven years now and so far no problems. Of course, if liver function does start to drop, I'll be off them like a shot and give it a chance to recover.

But liver damage IS the biggest worry with all of the statin drugs, so if you are taking them, a quarterly blood test, particularly for liver function is the safest route.

taking it immediately and refused to try other statins. We're both of the opinion that in about 10 years or less there will be lots and lots of people needing liver transplants from these drugs. Now that I know more about them, I find the Lipitor ads kind of amusing. They tell you that ancient Grandma Betty and prehistoric Uncle Bill are the cause of your cholesterol. Think about it. If Betty and Bill lived that long without a statin drug, why the heck would you need one? It's all about drug company profits.

My personal belief is that high cholesterol is caused by all the hydrogenated fake fats that people have been getting from the mass produced junk food. We don't eat like that and my husband has never had a problem with a high cholesterol reading... yet they automatically prescribed the statins after his heart attack. He was on Baycol until they withdrew it and they immediately put him on Lipitor. At one time, we talked his GP into stopping it and when the cardiologist found out he flipped and demanded that he keep taking it.

we knew this wouldn't be good, they called it a 'benefit'

:hi:

It's only going to get worse too..

More and more people HAVE to work past 65, and once you reach 65 , you HAVE to accept medicare, and most employer insurance plans are only too happy to say buh-byee..so just because you have a birthday, you are suddenly off the company plan and onto medicare..Around here lots of doctors "are not currently accepting" new medicare patients, so good luck even finding a doctor...and medical plans that had a co-pay and drug coverage are off the table too.. and then there's dental and vision too..

A 65 yr old employee who cannot afford to retire, is suddenly much poorer, and nothing much changed except the birthday..

I think where they are headed with this is to make medicare SO complicated, that the "private sector" will bundle something together like they did when "Secure Horizons" first started up a while back.. It "sounded" very good, and was pretty cheap. Here in CA they succeeded too well for THEIR own good, and it's been scaled waaaay back, if not eliminated altogether (never see the ads these days)..anyway, these "new plans" will arrive and ask people to decide on their own..want medicare? or not?...

These new plans will look soooo yummy, that seniors may actually sign up for them, BUT there will be no going back to medicare.. Once people start peeling away from medicare, there will be some bogus study group set up to prove that "medicare is a dinosaur...failing miserable", and must be ended..

Republicans are patient and are willing to nibble at the edges of programs they hate.. they know that once it's crippled, it will be easier to fully dismantle

This is exaclty what happens when republicans are in and passing health care bills. Did anyone expect anything less?

Meanwhile we are STILL paying the same amount of taxes but almost NONE of it goes to programs to benefit us our our fellow citizens.

Conservatives are fucking monsters. We need to take back this country.

not the gubmint will pay for it, why would they keep giving it away? it's like this is a big boondoggle for the pharmaceuticals or something...

who are poor and usually disabled or elderly. Those drugs are CRITICAL for every person who gets them. From what I have experienced, for the most part, these programs will continue. They cost the company very little and they are going to make a Gazillion on this new debacle so they dont care too much.