Medicine Information

Prescription Drug Benefit Cost Understated by $324 Billion!


When the legislation was passed for Bush's prescription drug benefit in 2003, costs were said to be approximately $400 billion over the next decade. In great contradiction with this estimate, the centers for Medicaid and Medicare have admitted that costs will actually be around $724 billion.

Considering the Bush administration's history of saying one thing and doing another, this understatement of cost comes at no surprise. The supposedly helpful benefit will, in most cases, only provide savings for people on the lowest income level; while those on mid-level incomes who spend between $2250 and $5100 on medications will pay at least a $37/month premium and a $250 deductible, with no additional savings.

The plan was designed with a "hole" in its coverage, so that people spending between $2250 and $5100 on medications each year will receive no additional compensation or savings: They are still saving just $1500. After the $5100 line is crossed, Medicare compensates patients for 95% of their spending on drugs.

Besides the "hole" in prescription drug coverage, this plan offers far fewer benefits than those of many private employers. As a result, those employers could easily lower their standards.

I don't claim to know much at all about this administration's prescription drug benefit plan, but as a normal citizen just like yourself, I am not pleased with what I see.

Ian Mason of Shoppe.MD Online Pharmacy


MORE RESOURCES:

China Medicine Corporation Awarded GSP Certification
MarketWatch - 6 hours ago
("China Medicine" or "the Company"), a leading developer and distributor of prescription and over the counter pharmaceuticals, traditional Chinese medicines ...


New Marketing Coaching and Consulting Firm for Physicians ...
MarketWatch - 6 hours ago
"There are a growing number of physicians making the switch to concierge medicine, but they either don't know how to effectively convert their existing ...


Voice of America

Effort in Senegal to Join Traditional & Conventional Medicine
Voice of America - 5 hours ago
By Scott Bobb Traditional medicine was once thought of as sorcery or quackery. But the craft is slowly gaining the respect of conventional medical ...
Modern West African Market Offers Traditional Remedies for Illness Voice of America
all 2 news articles


Organogenesis Receives Two Prestigious Awards for Economic Impact ...
MarketWatch - 4 hours ago
Organogenesis was the first company to successfully mass produce living regenerative medicine products -- reaching hundreds of thousands of patients in the ...


BBC News

The G8 has rescinded its pledge to give medicine to people with ...
guardian.co.uk, UK - 12 hours ago
I came with a simple message from my daughter, Smilie: "Tell Tony Blair that I saw Dr David who gave me medicine. I am now feeling better and I can go back ...
An end to the AIDS epidemic? Study provides new reason for hope New York Daily News
AIDS epidemic can be eradicated in a decade: Study The Money Times
Med students launch AIDS awareness program Beaufort Gazette
Voice of America
all 343 news articles


Three FAAPs elected to Institute of Medicine
AAP News (subscription) - 4 hours ago
Three AAP Fellows were among 65 new members elected to the Institute of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine that ...
FELLOWS IN THE NEWS AAP News (subscription)
Lake Tahoe hosts Practical Pediatrics, offers range of seminars AAP News (subscription)
all 3 news articles


Pediatricians and the Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding
Archives of Pediatrics - 56 minutes ago
Author Affiliations: Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Cooper University Hospital, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New ...
Adult medicine enters the medical home AAP News (subscription)
all 2 news articles


Cardiologists Debate Expensive Heart Scans
New York Times, United States - 3 hours ago
In the latest study, published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers assessed the accuracy of CT angiography in identifying ...
Heading off heart attacks in women Chicago Daily Herald
all 3 news articles


Spirituality, Evidence-Based Medicine, and Alcoholics Anonymous
Am J Psychiatry (subscription) - 4 hours ago
For example, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a self-designated "spiritual fellowship," is a useful adjunct to the practice of evidence-based addiction medicine. ...


FDA continues gathering information on cough medicine use in children
AAP News (subscription) - 3 hours ago
Cough and cold products are among the most widely used medicines in children. These drugs, which treat symptoms not the underlying disease, fall into four ...

Medicine - Google News

home | site map
© 2006