As I read this article it reminded me of the time not long ago when I was taking care of my mom and handling her medical care and prescription drugs. By the time my mom moved in with me in 2008 she was taking several subscription medications, but that soon grew to multiple ones that were only partially covered under the new Prescription Drug Coverage Law passed by President Bush in 2004. After paying her premium of forty plus dollars a month and a copay at the register she still ran out of benefits by June of each year. This study by AARP supports this trend in that prices of brand names (most commonly used by seniors and the ones taken by my mom) has risen by 26% from the years of 2005-2009. This is even after a steady decline of generic drug prices. Most drugs prescribed to our seniors are in the category of brand names - not generic, and the specialty drugs grew by 48%. In this period inflation grew by just 13% - so what is going on here! One thing that has been stated by Lawrence Marsh, managing director of equity research at Barclays Capital, is that drug companies raised these prices before their patents expired. What we need to do is to control the rapid and destructive rise in prescription drugs our seniors depend upon.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/business/aarp-study-says-price-of-popular-drugs-rose-26.html?ref=business
1 comment:
This is outrageous! We need to help our seniors. it snot like they can go out and work harder to get more money to pay the difference. and a lot of these prescriptions are ones that can be quite devastating to the body if not taken. Unlike other drugs which are taken by choice these ones cannot be supplemented with cheaper things or diet changes. I hope that the prescriptions stop increasing and start to decrease. Lets help these seniors who are on fixed incomes not wipe them out. Many of them are dependent on these medications for survival and a happy and healthy life.
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