A Windfall From Shifts to Medicare (NYT)

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/business/18place.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin



July 18, 2006
Market Place
A Windfall From Shifts to Medicare
By MILT FREUDENHEIM

The pharmaceutical industry is beginning to reap a windfall from a surprisingly lucrative niche market: drugs for poor people.

And analysts expect the benefits to show up in many of the quarterly financial results that drug makers will begin posting this week.

The windfall, which by some estimates could be $2 billion or more this year, is a result of the transfer of millions of low-income people into the new Medicare Part D drug program that went into effect in January. Under that program, as it turns out, the prices paid by insurers, and eventually the taxpayer, for the medications given to those transferred are likely to be higher than what was paid under the federal-state Medicaid programs for the poor.

About 6.5 million low-income elderly people or younger disabled poor people were automatically transferred into the Part D program for drug coverage. Because their other health needs are still covered by Medicaid, they are called dual eligibles.

The advent of Part D has not affected the drug coverage for the 45 million other low-income people whose drugs are still paid for under state Medicaid programs. Those programs closely monitor drug prices, and drug makers often typically end up paying rebates to the states.

[slor]

1. How sweet...

those poor big pharma companies. How did they ever survive before Chimpy and the McChimperettes?

[Roland99]

2. K&R

[ThomCat]

3. That is pure evil.

:grr:

[many a good man]

4. W is for Windfall

He thinks he is the Envy of the World.

[gratuitous]

5. Well, who could have predicted that?

And I'm sure that this has nothing to do with the stampede to get people into the Part D program by April 15, a deadline that the administration flat refused to make any accommodation on. Whatever was left in the Treasury after Halliburton and the other mercenary forces in Iraq were done plundering had to get funneled into the overstuffed pockets of Big Pharma toot fucking sweet before it was all gone.

[alfredo]

6. the windfall should have been double that. bush is failing

in his responsibility to the robber barons.

[WePurrsevere]

7. Of course they have a windfall from this, it was designed to do just that.

The original concept wasn't a bad one but it should have been designed by a committee made up of seniors, disabled, pharmacists, doctors & other caregivers.

[stepnw1f]

8. Evil/Sociopathic... take your pick

and then the people who gain wealth from this, wonder why poor people should despise them?

[Sapere aude]

9. Suprise! Suprise!

Under that program, as it turns out, the prices paid by insurers, and eventually the taxpayer, for the medications given to those transferred are likely to be higher than what was paid under the federal-state Medicaid programs for the poor.

[VegasWolf]

10. Bullshit. Tax payer funded drugs is the only reason why Big Pharma pushed

the Medicare prescription Plan.

Wonder how much money the people of the US will have left after BubbleBoy and the Big Corporations finish grabbing everything they can.

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[peaches2003]

11. Prices going up

Prices for the popular senior drugs such as Lipitor have already gone up. Just what Bush planned. And, of course, it is now illegal to import from Canada.

Have I told you lately how much I hate that son-of-a-bitch!?

[w4rma]

12. That was the whole point of the Repug "discount card" plan. (nt)