Many Americans are soon going to find prescription medications making less of a dent in their wallets, with 19 brand-name drugs losing patent protection this year or next, and more than two dozen others by 2015.
Before long, "eight out of 10 prescriptions can be filled with a generic," notes Steve Miller, chief medical officer for Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit management company in St. Louis.
Among the bestselling drugs, cholesterol reducer Lipitor lost its patent protection last week, while the blood thinner Plavix loses exclusivity in the spring of 2012. As other firms manufacture generic equivalents, prices should drop "by 60 percent to 80 percent," Miller says.
For example, before the cholesterol drug Zocor went off patent in 2006, it sold for about $150 for a 30-day supply. Six months later, as more generic manufacturers entered the market, the price dropped to less than $20, according to Express Scripts.
Obviously, consumers would be wise to pay attention to which of their medications are moving to generic, but there other steps they can take to save on prescriptions.
Talk to your healthcare provider. If drug costs are an issue, "tell your doctor," says Ira Wilson, chairman of Brown University's Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice. Too often physicians prescribe the newest drug, even though an established medicine may work better and cost less. A published study of 17,000 seniors by Wilson showed that patients are about five times more likely to be switched to a lower-cost medicine if they discuss costs with their doctors. Even when generics aren't available, doctors have other lower-cost options, such as prescribing another drug in the same therapeutic class or even within a different class.
Get a medication review. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to review your medications, suggests Nicole Brandt, associate professor at the University of Maryland's pharmacy school. "The first question is whether a medication is still indicated," she notes. "Clearly, you'll save a lot of money if you can stop a medication."
Some medicines intended for short-term use, such as sleeping pills or drugs that many hospital patients get to relieve stomach distress, unwittingly become long-term habits. Drug reviews also can lead to dose reductions for certain medicines—common among older adults, as the aging body metabolizes drugs differently—or reveal that patients are taking similar medicines prescribed by different doctors. Under Medicare, certain beneficiaries may qualify for a free annual medication review, Brandt says.
Look for 3-for-1 deals. Mail-ordering drugs can save you money on medications that you tolerate and take for a chronic condition, but not for one-time prescriptions. You also can get a 90-day supply for a single copay, rather than three monthly ones. Some local pharmacies do this, too.
Check your health plan's formulary. You'll pay more for brand-name medications that are excluded. However, if a particular drug is necessary for you and not covered under the formulary, then "appealing is a good thing to do," says Cheryl Fish-Parcham of the advocacy group Families USA.
Check with your health plan about how to pursue the appeals process or consult your state's Consumer Assistance Program. These resources can also hook you up with pharmaceutical assistance programs if you are having problems affording your medicines.
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You know, this whole FCC torpedoing AT&T’s planned T-Mobile merger is nonsense. As I have written about often, I think the merger’s a mini jobs stimulus plan which can inject jobs into the economy far beyond anything that may happen at the company post-merger.
We sorely need that here in America. This privately borne proposal is just one such plan, one which would provide some needed fuel for new American jobs. Up to 96,000 by AT&T’s estimation.
Yet the FCC’s got the company by the proverbial short hairs, firmly believing that its judgment is better than those who are taking the risk and making investments needed to build out new broadband facilities for Americans. Consequently, as one industry observer dryly noted:
“This is central planning at its most repugnant.”
Yes it is. And, it’s got some powerful cheerleaders from the media-Marxist crowd jumping up and down with profound excitement.
Leading this pack is the holier-than-thou radicals at Free Press.
Holier-than-thou because, though they claim AT&T’s Washington money has corrupted communications policy, it is they who have raked in millions from murky “progressive” foundations – the latter actively working this past decade to corrupt and “transform” America by laundering – often from hidden / non-transparent sources – approximately $100 million to kneecap telephone, cable and media companies with new rules, regulations and costly proscriptions.
Not surprisingly, Free Press sits atop the list of “media reform” foundation grantees.
Between 2003 and 2009, Free Press received at least $15.4 million in IRS-disclosed grants from foundations, including a third of that from Schumann (almost $4.7 million), as well as grants from the Partridge Foundation ($1.5 million), OSI/FPOS ($1.26 million), Ford ($1.1 million), Park ($1.125 million), and the Sandler Foundation ($1 million).
Examples of some of these grants include:
Ford Foundation
- $100,000 in 2006 for research and content development for state and local issues
- $300,000 in 2007 to leverage knowledge about electronic media policy on the ongoing debates on media reform
- $300,000 in 2008 for general support to promote diverse and independent media ownership
- $400,000 in 2009 to support independent media ownership
Joyce Foundation
- $50,000 in 2006 to organize Future of the Media town hall meetings
Open Society Institute
- $200,000 in 2004 to help fund the National Conference on Media Reform
Park Foundation
- $250,000 in 2005 for the Campaign for the Future of Public Broadcasting
- $250,000 in 2007 for media reform work to take place in 2008
Schumann Center for Media and Democracy
- $478,000 in 2003 as a challenge grant of $600,000 to advance citizen action on media reform
- $500,000 in 2008 for general support to advance citizen action on media reform
(Source: FoundationSearch.com)
This cash has helped Free Press stay busy in Washington. Very. Not coincidentally, during the span of time that they and others on their side have been involved, we’ve seen the fall of bi-partisan efforts to craft communications policy – where guys like Republican Tom Bliley could reach across the aisle to Democrat Ed Markey and actually agree on telecom competition law.
Today, that’s largely gone.
Now, any policy that involves “access to knowledge” or “media reform” policy – such as Net Neutrality, or the ownership of the “pipes” by telephone, cable or wireless providers – almost reflexively divides Congress and policymakers across party lines. This phenomenon threatens to strangle technological progress, taking us back to the inglorious past of stultifying monopoly regulation rather than confidently into the future, protected by innovation, industry best-practices and competition.
Such a state of affairs could not have occurred without the “progressive” foundation-driven echo chamber, of which Free Press plays a leading role.
Sadly, the cost of their corruption is immense. Through their work – which has captured not just the FCC, but also the Administration and virtually the entirety of Washington’s left-leaning policy apparatus – America stands on the brink.
Through their work, private enterprise – imperfect as it is – has become a dirty word, a casus belli instead of the miracle it is in lifting billions out of poverty and squalor.
Liberty-loving individuals must fight back against these oblique forces who desire “repugnant central planning” to “right” the world of all of its “evils.” At every chance we must ask: Who are these foundations; how are they funded; and why does anyone call them “public interest” advocates when it appears through any rational analysis that they are hellbent on undermining capitalism and the American way?
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