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Uninsured Pay More For Prescription Drugs, Report
Says By Julie Ishida Uninsured consumers, including millions of seniors without prescription drug coverage, pay an average of 72 percent more than the federal government for medications, according to a survey issued yesterday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Among the highest were prices paid by uninsured people in Baltimore, the District of Columbia, and Northern Virginia. The report adds ammunition to liberal criticism that the Medicare drug bills now moving through Congress fail to address the problem of rising pharmaceutical costs. "When the 41 million uninsured Americans go it alone at the drug store, they pay the price -- sometimes more than double what government agencies pay," said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. PIRG. Last month, the House and Senate passed legislation to add drug coverage beginning in 2006 under Medicare, the federal health insurance program for 40 million senior and disabled Americans, at a cost of $400 billion over a decade. Federal agencies use their buying power to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for steep discounts; the bills bar the government from negotiating for Medicare recipients. The report was based on a spring survey of more than 500 pharmacies in 18 states and the District of Columbia that compared what uninsured consumers and the government paid for 10 commonly prescribed medications. They included the cholesterol drug Lipitor, the anti-inflammatory medication Celebrex and Prilosec, for acid reflux. U.S. PIRG, a consumer advocacy group, based its comparisons on the price that the Veterans Administration, Department of Defense, Coast Guard, and Public Health Service pay for prescription drugs. The organization recommended drug buying pools, more information on effectiveness of similar drugs and more access to generics. "If the private-sector approach is good enough for members of Congress, then it ought to be good enough for elderly patients," said Jeffrey Trewhitt of PhRMA, the trade association for research-based pharmaceutical companies. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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