Medicare’s Role in Rising Drug Costs
Regarding the high cost of drugs (“Out of Reach?” May 29), could it be that Medicare is an enabler in this problem? The elderly, looking for fixes for their pain and depression, go from doctor to doctor (visits compliments of Medicare), who hand them the newest prescription--many costing well over $100 for a month’s supply of pills--which sometimes compounds rather than helps the problem.
Recently, I appealed to one of my aunt’s many doctors (her drug costs are $600 a month, with no insurance coverage for any of them). I asked him if he could substitute some less expensive generic drugs for the eight she is taking, and he suggested that to save money she could “get off” the anti-depression drug and the bladder-control drug because they were only for “symptomatic treatment.” I don’t see this as an acceptable way to lower her drug bills. The doctors are in a bind, and the pharmacy bills are going to make her destitute. Something is seriously amiss here.
--M. GERBER
Sierra Madre
*
Why are prices for drugs developed in the U.S. cheaper in Mexico and Canada than in the U.S.? If the drug companies need to recoup costs of research and development, the prices should be much higher in other countries, since they contribute absolutely nothing to the drugs’ development. The U.S. government contributes millions of taxpayer dollars to research and development, which ought to mean that U.S. taxpayers should pay the lowest possible cost to purchase these drugs.
--GAIL BRICKNER
Orange
*
I read your two articles on drug pricing with dismay. Your headlines say that the price of drugs is up. But reading the smaller article (“Study Shows Drug Prices Have Doubled in Last 3 Years”), it becomes clear that people are spending more on drugs because they are buying more of them. Over the past three years, people have increased the number of medications they take by 14% a year and they take the medications longer by 12%.
You would not say that the price of cars was going up if people were buying more cars (thus spending more on cars). While it may be true for other reasons that drug prices should be less, your article does not make a case for that, except to note that government research aids in drug discoveries.
--PEGGY ARNDT
Aliso Viejo
