Insurer Clarifies Drug Plan for AARP
The country’s biggest health insurer has informed members of the senior citizens lobbying group AARP that it will reimburse them for prescriptions filled in Canada and elsewhere abroad.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. sent a letter to the 97,000 people who purchased insurance with a drug benefit through AARP to tell them about the coverage.
Buying prescription drugs outside the country for use at home violates federal regulations but is a growing practice among some older Americans seeking relief from high prices. Insurance policies generally cover drugs purchased abroad if a person is traveling there and has forgotten medicine or becomes ill.
UnitedHealth and AARP appeared to want to keep the measure low-key, but it was certain to meet with approval from AARP plan members and thousands of other senior citizens who buy their drugs in Canada and Mexico, where they are drastically cheaper.
Viola Qurion, 76, a retired garment worker who lives in Waterville, Maine, on $1,027 a month, makes an annual pilgrimage to Canada to buy medicine. She said she otherwise would have to choose between drugs and food.
“We don’t like to go,” she said in a telephone interview. “It is hard for a lot of us to get around, but what choice do we have?”
She said she saved about $500 on the medicines for allergies and indigestion she bought during a trip this week.
AARP said it is not advocating purchasing drugs abroad. It described the letter as a reminder of policy and called its timing “unfortunate,” coming so soon after a failed effort at legislation to allow people to import prescription drugs for their own use. Currently, U.S. law prohibits Americans from importing medicines that are available in the United States.
“The letter was just an informational letter to members letting them know that we would be paying claims for all drug purchases,” said Julie Alexis, manager of member health products at AARP.
UnitedHealth said its letter did not reflect a change in coverage but was meant to clarify a misunderstanding. It also said it was not trying to encourage anyone to violate federal Food and Drug Administration regulations.
“If someone is driving at a high rate of speed and they get in an accident we cover them, but it’s not like we advocate such behavior,” said UnitedHealth spokesman Mark Lindsay.
Lindsay says the insurer doesn’t know how many of the 97,000 individuals get their drugs abroad to save money.
