The ever increasing doughnut hole
The doughnut hole, or the payment that Medicare patients make when their medications cost more than $2700 a year is going to get bigger. The new bill in Congress is supposed to close the payments over the next 10 years so that all pharmacy payments will be covered by Medicare. However, because of increases in pills and decreases in money coming in to pay for federal programs those on Medicare can expect to pay more for the next three years. After that the new legislation, if it becomes law will eventually catch up with those increases and will start to close the doughnut hole. That does nothing to help the people that take expensive drugs and have to come up with $2700 every year or just stop taking their pills. Many people that are on blood pressure medication or pain pills just stop taking their medication and for the rest of the year hope that their health does not decrease enough to be hospitalized until the beginning of the next year when Medicare picks up again. For those that can come up with the $2700, at $4300 Catastrophic Care kicks in and pays for 95% of all medications regardless of the amount. So those what are trying to live off of Social Security Disability payments have to somehow come up with over $2000 a year and give up on either a car or a place to live. This hole was put in place by the Republicans who said that the government could not pay for all drugs and this was a way to make sure that everyone would have access to the Medicare pharmacy program. However, it only creates a situation where people that need drugs cannot afford to keep taking them and are forced to stop taking them and put their health at risk. In the mean time the new Medicare bill requires pill manufacturers to give everyone a 50% discount to help individuals pay for their pills. No one knows how much that discount will help those that cannot afford their pills now, but the already existing programs to help those to pay for drugs only help a tiny fraction because the companies decide who their are going to help and by how much. (Source: Washington Post)
This political football has created a group of people that cannot pay for their drugs because of a crazy program that is based on Social Security that was never supposed to give people enough money to pay for their medical bills. So instead we have a drug industry that makes billions of dollars in profits on the backs of those that pay for research on the pills that we are charged $1000+ a month for. These companies due to keep generic drug makers from creating drugs that can be afforded by all. It is interesting that the costs of the same drug in the US is a fraction of that amount in Canada or even India. Each country pays a different amount but we are too stupid to make these same deals with the drug makers. To add insult to injury Medicare is not allowed by law to purchase drugs from other countries for less than what we are charged for them now. The US pays for all of the research but does not gain any of the benefits of that research. Instead the poor of the country are forced to pay outrageous amounts of money for drugs that they need to stay alive. We need to make some decisions as a country on how we deal with those that are disabled and elderly. Either we are going to pay for their medical care or not – not the bits and pieces we are now. By only allowing these people to take their drugs every 6 months, their health is deteriorating to the point that they are dying before they should because of the damage caused by not taking their medications. Lets close the doughnut hole and give people the medical care that they need to live useful lives.
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