Drug Cost Hike Linked to New Medicare Benefits

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=97&ncid=751&e=10&u=/hsn/20040630/hl_hsn/drugcosthikelinkedtonewmedicarebenefits

WEDNESDAY, June 30 (HealthDayNews) -- The new Medicare drug benefit may have spurred the most recent hike in prescription medication costs for older Americans, a new report suggests.


Manufacturer prices for brand-name prescription drugs rose 4.4 percent, or nearly three times the general inflation rate, during the three-month period from Dec. 31, 2003, through March 31, 2004.


According to the report, released Wednesday by AARP, those increases came after President Bush (news - web sites) signed the Medicare prescription drug benefit into law on Dec. 8, 2003. The discount drug cards only became available to seniors in June.


"We can't say for sure why it's happening, but there certainly seems to be an association," said David Gross, first author of the report and a senior policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. "It doesn't prove it, but it doesn't disprove it."

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[Liberal Veteran]

1. Should have made price controls part of the bargain.

Sometimes our politicians are so stupidly inept I am amazed we have lasted 200 years.

[Malva Zebrina]

2. this is really criminal

when you think of it. and of all people suddently the AARP has had an epiphany?

Bullshit

we are being jerked around--all of us.

How much longer are we going to take it?

I for one, will NOT vote for Olympia Snowe . She got up on the Senate floor with a lot of fancy looking posters and displays describing how wonderful this new Medicare plan is.

AARP abandoned it's seniors, but it was never anything more than an insurance company to begin with, and subsequently lost a large percentage of it's subscribers.

and we now have the pharma companies jerking us around jacking up their prices on the most commonly prescribed drugs for seniors.

It is simply criminal. It is classic. We knew it would happen. How could they give us a discount without making up for it somewhere else? That makes sense and lo and behold, they have done it. Who, in their right mind, really thought they would not?


Snowe went around the state of Maine , visiting many senior centers, had her picture in many newspapers with white haired women, as she described to these vulnerable and often exploited seniors, who may or may not have understood or were up on any of it and who probably took her word for it for lack of connections and the following week Bush announced--oops--we made a mistake and it is going to cost much more than we thought

as Snowe, told us. NOT

She failed to give us that information and those seniors who are not connected, will go on believing something wonderful happened under Bush because Snowe visited them and told them so.