Allies Voice: Federal funding for drugs and donuts
The dubious Medicare "donut hole" made headlines in the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. The "donut hole" is an odd stretch of coverage in Medicare between $2,400 and $3,850. In the "donut hole" prescriptions are not covered. Statistics show that last year 15% of Medicare beneficiaries stopped refilling prescriptions when they fell in the hole. In other words - nearly 1 in 5 people felt their prescriptions were not worth the out-of-pocket expense. Are you one of these people?
It's a loaded question, you bet. I have a drawer full of those rubbish prescriptions: meclizine, capoten, simvastatin, amlodipine, hydrochlorothiazide, prometrium … and then some. Most of these drugs have been expired. Others I couldn't justify throwing away a full container. I've torn through three generations of blood pressure meds I could not handle. Many of them leave me slurring speech and stumbling like a drunken sailor. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the Medicare "donut holers" stopped taking drugs that did the same to them. What drugs these days don't have adverse side effects?
Diabetes is a special creature. Upon diagnosis some of us have a limited choice of genetically-modified insulin. That's the case if you are diagnosed with type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes. Not much wiggle room.
Type 2 diabetes has a plethora of pills, glorious pills. (Catch my sarcasm?) Step 1: anti diabetes pill. Step 2: anti-hypertension pill (blood pressure). Step 3: statin (cholesterol). By "Step 3" you're readlly standing in it!
The cumulative cost of the aforementioned drugs exceeded $40 billion last year. I'm wondering if the 15% of people in the "donut hole" could have made a significant difference in this total. Maybe that's why your local pharmacies may be calling to remind you to refill your meds?
Dear Senator McCain and Senator Obama,
You gentleman have a significant mission ahead of you. A nation divided cannot succeed in the mission at hand: operation remedy. Our healthcare needs improvement. I'm being polite.
Issues like: uninsured Americans, the Medicare "donut hole" and extortive prescription costs are impairing the health of America. To change the trend of these issues we must change the way we handle them.
This is where you come in. I'm neither a politician nor a policymaker but I am a registered voter. I'm sure you two have some topnotch talent behind you. In the next few months, I hope to realize one of you has the directions to get US on the mend.
Influencing millions,
Allie Beatty
Allie,
I'm a Type 1 diabetic currently on Medicare because of end stage renal disease. I was not on Medicare before that because I'm only 48. Ever since I've been on Medicare though, I have only had to pay a co-pay when I pick up my prescriptions. The most I pay is $3.10 but most of them are around a dollar each. I don't know how much they've come to so far but one of the meds I take for my kidney failure would cost me $399 (that's what the pharmacist told me when I asked him) so that plus the $225 a month for insulin and all of my testing supplies and pump supplies, I know that I've hit and surpassed that hole a long time ago. But never was I charged for anything. My pump supplies and test strips all come from Liberty and I've never been billed by them for anything. I don't know if people with end stage renal failure are exempt from this hole or not. Now, I should mention too that I do have a Medicare supplement so that may be picking up the stuff from the hole, if it indeed exists for me as well. I just can't really say though since I've never been charged anything when I got into that amount of benefits paid.
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I just wanted to point out an error in your conversion of 15% to a ratio. 15% corresponds to 1 out of 6 2/3 people (or 3 out of 20 if you don't like to split people). So saying more than 1 in 7 would be accurate while saying "nearly 1 in 5" is well off (even saying nearly 1 in 6 would be a bit of a stretch).
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