Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report
Medicare
Prescription Drug
Prices Higher Through Medicare Discount Cards Than Through VA Health System,
Report Says
The prescription drug discounts that
veterans receive through the Department
of Veterans Affairs exceed the savings that are available through the new
prescription drug discount cards, according to a new study released Wednesday
by Families
USA, the Hartford Courant reports (MacDonald, Hartford Courant, 6/3). The discount
card program, which was created as part of the new Medicare law and debuted
Tuesday, is available to Medicare beneficiaries who do not have prescription
drug coverage through Medicaid. Beneficiaries have access to a number of
discount cards sponsored by private companies and endorsed by Medicare. Card
sponsors can charge an annual enrollment fee of as much as $30 and likely will
offer savings on at least one medication in each of 209 classes of treatments
commonly used by Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare beneficiaries with annual
incomes of less than $12,569 for individuals or $16,862 for couples will
qualify for a $600 annual subsidy for their prescription drug costs and will
not have to pay enrollment fees. Beneficiaries can use the Medicare Web site or
call 1-800-MEDICARE to make card-to-card comparisons of prescription drug
discounts. According to HHS
Secretary Tommy Thompson, the discount cards provide average savings of about
10% to 17% for brand-name medications and 30% to 60% for generic treatments (Kaiser Daily Health
Policy Report, 6/2). In a comparison of the 20 prescription
drugs most commonly prescribed to Medicare beneficiaries, Families USA found
that the lowest prices available through the Medicare cards for 10 of the
medications were at least 50% higher than prices negotiated by VA, according to
Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack. The study also found that the
lowest drug card price for Lipitor, a
cholesterol-lowering medication and the most frequently prescribed drug for
seniors, was 59% higher than the price available through VA. According to the
study, the Medicare drug card price was 46% higher than the VA price for
cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor, 56% higher for acid
reflux treatment Prevacid and 65% higher for blood
pressure medicine Norvasc. VA discounts also exceeded
Medicare drug card prices for the other 10 drugs, although only by 7% in one
case (Hartford Courant,
6/3). A price comparison chart from the Families USA study is available online.
Criticism
Pollack criticized Congress for not including in the new Medicare law a
provision that would allow the federal government to negotiate prices with
pharmaceutical companies, as VA does. He said, "Instead of the drug discount
cards, Congress and the president should have provided real price relief for
America's seniors by enabling them to bargain for lower prices" (Hartford Courant, 6/3). He added,
"Other than political pressure from the drug lobby, there is no sensible
reason why Congress and the president refused to take this far more effective
step" (Barfield
Response
However, Thompson said on Tuesday that the VA model would not be practicable
for the Medicare population because VA runs the hospitals where drugs are
distributed and Medicare is a far larger program. "It's not an
apples-to-apples comparison, he said, adding that allowing the federal
government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare would have a distorting effect
on the drug market (Heil, CongressDaily, 6/2). Rick Smith,
a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America, added, "Medicare would be a
price fixer, not a negotiator" (