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As Paychecks Stall, Drug Costs Go Up |
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Having health insurance no longer necessarily means that you can afford the medicines you need to stay healthy. According to a new report, people with health insurance are having more trouble paying for prescription drugs as insurers push more of the drug costs onto workers, at the same time the economic recession is stretching family budgets.
A survey by the National Patient Advocate Foundation, which helps people pay medical bills, found 31 percent of the nearly 45,000 people it assisted last year said drug co-payments were their top medical-debt problem.
In some cases, the patient’s share of drug costs is no longer a flat dollar amount, but a proportion that can range from 20 percent to 70 percent, according to USA Today. Co-payments for prescription drugs have risen most sharply for costly types of drugs.
According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, patient payments for generic drugs rose 38 percent from 2000 to 2007 and some brand-name drugs rose 48 percent. Yet workers’ paychecks are not growing at the same rate. The Economic Policy Institute reports wages have grown slower than inflation since 2001 and real hourly wages have thus been flat or negative since last October.
The news that drug costs are rising comes as no surprise to Curt from Ohio, who says:
My wife was prescribed a drug that cost $1,400 per month. Originally my health insurance covered the cost. When my employer changed [reduced] coverage, they no longer covered that cost. We ran up thousands of dollars of debt on credit cards until we could find a cheaper alternative. Eventually a doctor directed us to a source in Europe that could provide the same drug for $600 per month. Eventually we had to give up on the treatment as we could not afford to continue. We sold one car to help pay off the debt, but we are still struggling to pay off the balance.
Curt was one of the more than 26,000 people who completed the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey. Nearly 7,500 respondents told us about their personal health care experiences. Some two-thirds (61 percent) who have employer-provided coverage say their costs have gotten worse and 95 percent say America’s health care system needs fundamental change or to be completely rebuilt. Some 79 percent of respondents say that come November, candidates who can best fix the nation’s broken health care system will be a major factor in who gets their vote.
George Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, says the rising costs of prescription drugs is “appalling,”
at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to afford their prescriptions and drug company profits and CEO pay continue to reach record highs. Our government keeps looking the other way while these companies profit off of people just trying to follow their doctor’s orders.
The AFL-CIO is mobilizing to make health care a major issue in the 2008 presidential and congressional campaigns and will present the results of this survey to candidates for public office at every level and increase its mobilization to help ensure that candidates who win in November go into office with a mandate for real health care reform.
There is a real difference among the presidential candidates on reforming health care. The AFL-CIO’s John McCain Revealed site offers the real straight talk on McCain’s health care plan, which would tax your health care benefits, lead employers to eliminate benefits, leave working families at the mercy of big insurance companies and fail to cut costs or cover more people. For a more detailed look at McCain’s proposal, click here.
The two Democratic candidates contending for the presidential nomination, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), have released comprehensive health plans aimed at providing health care coverage.
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Today’s newspaper had ads from two grocery chains - Fred Meyer and QFC (which I believe is part of the Kroeger chain) advertising over 300 generic (without a brand name) prescriptions for $4.00 for a 30 day supply. I think that Walmart and Walgreens have the same thing. It’s worth a few phone calls to see if there is a grocery or pharmacy in your area who has the same program. This is cheaper than the co-pay on most medical plans and can cut down medical costs, especially for those uninsured or on a tight budget!
Across the U.S. over 380 labor organizations have endorsed H.R. 676, a bill extending an improved upon version of Medicare to all residents of this nation.
While Clinton and Obama propose healthcare reform, their positions unfortunatley allow for the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations to remain in control gouging the American consumer to no end!
Given the fact that we are the only major industrialized nation in the world without a national health plan, it is time to make change!
H.R. 676 is truly the only viable healthcare legislation that would address the injustices and chaos so prevalent in our healthcare system today!
Prescription drugs are a major cost for many of us. Without my union-negotiated prescription drug benefit, I would be unable to afford even half of my medications. The downside of surviving cancer is that it often leaves patients with long-term health problems that can be controlled with drug regimens when other methods fail. These medications allow me to maintain a quality of life I would not otherwise enjoy.
My health care provider has to defer to a formulary that allows only certain medications and dosages. The good part is that my maintenance drugs are available at a reduced cost for a three month supply, and I now can use my local union pharmacy to get my meds. There is, of course a greater out-of-pocket expense initially—but it is better in the long run, and I don’t have to use mail-order to get the discount.
I understand that there are many folks out there without any prescription coverage at all—but most any union pharmacy will match the price of a local competitor if you ask. That often includes WalMart or non-union Walgreens! If you use Rite-Aid or CVS, ask if they are a union shop before you fill your prescriptions. The job you save may be that of a union brother or sister!
My own father lost his job and his health insurance, and had to pay full price for his heart medications. Our family made sure that he and my mom didn’t go without what they needed, but it meant that he had to swallow his pride—difficult for a man who raised six children and worked hard his whole life.
He died from lung cancer after a series of misdiagnoses by doctors unfamiliar with his history; his original cardiologist tried to save his life, but it was too late. It is sad that in a country as great as ours, a man could die just because he was unlucky enough to lose his job.