Obama really is Pharma's best friend: new discovery

[MannyGoldstein]

My wife found out tonight that one of the provisions of RomneyCare/ObamaCare is that Flexible Spending Accounts can only be used to pay for drugs that you have a prescription for.

An article on this: http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/healthcare/government/2010-11-16-fsa-otc_N.htm

That's just great. Another pain in my ass. Fabulous.

But on the bright side, RomneyCare/ObamaCare has helped me out in other ways. For example... well, I'm sure it's helped me somehow.

[frazzled]

1. Just ask your doctor for a prescription and your account can be used

So you can still use your account to pay for over-the-counter drugs; you just need a prescription for them. And medical supplies and first-aid items (from crutches to bandaids to blood-sugar testing kits) are still okay without a prescription.

However, how the hell much over-the-counter drugs are we even talking about here? If I spend $40 a year on over-the-counter drugs I'd be surprised (a couple of bottles of Advil and maybe some Neosporin for cuts and some antacid.). Plus, we're only talking about pre-tax versus post-tax dollars for those drugs. It's hardly worth throwing a hissy fit over. If you are spending thousands of dollars on o-t-c drugs, something is probably amiss, and you should see your doctor.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Antihistimines, decongestant, eye drops, antacids, cough syrup, naproxen, ...

Families use all kinds of stuff. It's a pain in the ass, if we don't use our account we lose it, and there's not goddamned good reason for it.

Look: if it's not much money, then why did Pharma demand it?

[frazzled]

8. Pharma isn't getting anything from this: you can still get your

antihistimines and decongestants and laxatives through your account: you just have to ask you doctor to write a prescription for them. That doesn't make them prescription drugs: it just means you are allowed to by them with your pre-tax dollars.

Why was this written in? I suspect because a lot of people abuse this, and buy all kinds of shit at the drugstore with pre-tax dollars. Also, people can abuse over-the-counter medicines.

We're still not talking a lot of money here, with all the things you listed. It's not like you're getting them "covered" or "free"--it's just the difference between buying them before being taxed versus after. On a few hundred bucks worth of stuff per year, it's hardly even noticeable.

Plus, stop making these kinds of right-wing complaints. It's unbecoming on a liberal board.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. You're calling me a Republican? Just great, thanks.

A few hundred bucks is nothing to you? That must be nice!

[Cali_Democrat]

22. There are many folks on the left who are opposed to the new health care bill

Many people oppose the health care law because it doesn't go far enough or is too friendly to big pharma and the insurance companies.

The OP obviously thinks it doesn't go far enough and is too friendly to big business.

I don't see how you can say this is a right-wing complaint.

[frazzled]

25. The OP is incorrect to say Big Pharma has anything to do with this aspect

of the new rules.

No one is saying that you have to buy a prescription drug instead of using your flex account to buy over-the-counter cough syrup or Claritin. I've explained that above quite clearly. All you have to do is get your doctor to say you have allergies that need Claritin, and you can spend all your flex-account money you want on it.

Look: people can't buy over-the-counter drugs with their health insurance coverage either. Flex accounts are meant to be used for things that health insurance doesn't cover: big stuff, not the once-a-year $4.99 bottle of cough syrup.

You need $2,000 worth of dental work? (That's one crown). Many dental plans have a yearly cap of $1500. So $500 in your flex account can pay for that. Or for regular medical supplies you may need, like diabetes-testing equipment. Does your child have allergies and needs to take a decongestant during hayfever season? You can still use your flex account for that, too: just get the pediatrician to confirm that your child benefits from that over-the-counter drug. You can get reimbursed out of your account for it.

There is really not a big deal to this, and certainly no reason to attack the new health-care law for it. Unless you are looking for reasons to nitpick it. And this argument is not just nitpicking. As I've explained, it's pretty much false.

[vaberella]

26. They don't have to use a right wing talking point in order to express that displeasure. n/t

[Jakes Progress]

23. Spoken like someone who already has great insurance.

Even with insurance, that prescription for over the counter will cost you $20 to $40 copay for doctor's time. If you are poor and don't have insurance, it will be $80 to $120.

I sure get tired of people with lots of money, a good paying job, and employer insurance telling the poor to stop complaining about things.

It's not a right wing complaint to point out places where the people pay get their benefits cut. Defending benefit cuts - now that's unbecoming on a liberal board.

[frazzled]

29. The Minute-Clinic at Walgreen's can probably OK your ...

cough syrup need, possibly for free.

But the OP was talking about flexible spending accounts. Those are only available to people through their employers anyway. So we're already talking about people who probably have health insurance through their employers.

The problem with the over-the-counter drugs on FSAs (which by the way, were not allowable until 2003--until a Republican president and Congress made it so) is that it is difficult to substantiate them. Letting people keep $2500 in their FSA and then use it at the drug store to buy items that cannot be substantiated as legitimate medical items (drugstores don't usually provide those kinds of receipts) means that the government is being robbed of PAYROLL TAX dollars: we're talking money that funds Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. We don't want that.

So, yes, I am coming from a liberal position here.

[boppers]

19. Antihistamines, decongestant, eye drops, antacids, cough syrup, naproxen... all Pharma products.

Are you aware of some mom-and-pop company that makes antihistamines? Squibb/Bayer/Proctor & Gamble/Johnson and Johnson/Pfizer (etc. etc.) don't care how you're paying, as long as they can sell to you.

If this was a Pharma giveaway, they would have *increased* the amount of crap that it can cover, not decreased it.

[golfguru]

9. I see two problems with that

first, doctor visit costs lot more than the meds.
Second, doctor won't write prescription for aspirin and cough drops.

[MannyGoldstein]

11. You'll get a script for some fancy prescription med

And probably a fleet of lab tests to go with it.

[bettyellen]

17. tell the doctor what you need written up and why at your annual check up - he;s going to get a lot

of requests for this now. if your doc is foisting meds on you that you think are inappropriate- then that;s another story. and you're smart enough to do somehing about it, I am sure.

[frazzled]

13. Puh-leeze

First, yes: they will have to start writing them if you ask because you want to purchase them out of a flex account. You can probably just call the office.

Second, this is a pathetic, right-wing argument.

Third, this is nitpicking of the highest order. For the 10 cents you will save by buying a bottle of aspirin with pre-tax dollars rather than post-tax dollars, this is hardly even worth arguing about.

We keep a very modest amount of money in our flex account for things like dental bills that are bigger than our dental-insurance yearly cap; for eyeglasses (a prescription item), and that's about it. I never even thought to use it to buy freakin' cough drops. I can really see that being abused, and robbing the government of tax revenues, when you add it up for fifty million people.

[golfguru]

20. I will give you a personal example

Back in the 80's I has stomach issues and was prescribed Tagamet.
It was like a miracle drug for me because it cured my stomach without
surgery or complications.

It is still available and curing health problems for thousands.
EXCEPT....it is now available OTC! And it is still not cheap OTC.

But like Manny points out it can not be paid out of your HSA account
since it is not prescription med.

[ProSense]

14. HCR eliminates co-pays

and your doctor can call in a prescription to your pharmacy.

Still, why would you need to visit the doctor for him to call in a prescription for OTC?

[pnwmom]

28. And don't forget that annual check-ups are free.

That would be a good time to ask for a prescription for a year's worth of allergy medicine, or whatever.

[boppers]

2. It's reducing what was a tax-free subsidy for OTC pharmaceutical products.

The bullet points:

----------
•The estimated 35 million FSA users must spend all their set-aside money each year or lose it. People tend to use leftover dollars by stocking up on aspirin and other drugstore staples at year's end, and the prescription requirement may put a crimp in that spree next fall.

•According to the Internal Revenue Service, the prescription requirement is only for OTC medications, not other non-drug health supplies such as contact lens solutions, bandages, crutches and blood-sugar test kits. These will merely require a receipt for reimbursement, just like today.

•Next year the health care law also eliminates preventive service copays, such as for well-child visits, mammograms and vaccinations, possibly altering how much people put into an FSA in the first place.

•Most affected by the OTC rule will be daily users of those drugs — like people who treat arthritis with ibuprofen, or gastric reflux with Prilosec OTC, or hay fever with Claritin. They will have to calculate if any extra doctor visits offset the pretax savings.
-------------

How is that friendly to Pharma?

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Ask a doc for a script, and they're likely to write it for a prescription med

That's how it helps Pharma.

Are you claiming that consumers will somehow save money because FSAs don't cover OTC drugs without a script? Really?

[boppers]

15. If it's only by prescription or OTC, it's still money going to Pharma.

I'm sure they're happy to take your dollars, with, or without, prescriptions attached.

Oh, and if a doctor is over-prescribing, that's a pretty good reason to yank their license.

[pnwmom]

4. It's helped me already. Both of my sons are now eligible

to continue on their father's insurance till they're 26, and none of us will be restricted by lifetime insurance limits anymore. Our elderly mothers will be paying half as much for the prescriptions they need to buy while in the "donut hole."

I wish I didn't have to wait till 2014 till the ban on preexisting conditions kicks in for adults, because once my oldest is out of graduate school she won't be able to purchase individual insurance until the ban takes effect.

[golfguru]

12. My kids were already covered until 26 as full time students

Both are planning on post graduate studies so they will be in college
until 26 anyway. But I do like the change in the new bill in that we
do not have to send in documents to the insurance company to prove they
are full time students.

[pnwmom]

16. Few young people go on to graduate studies.

My oldest did, but she has a preexisting condition that will keep her from buying individual insurance when she's no longer a student -- unless and until the new health care plan takes effect.

[ProSense]

6. FSAs are a pain in the ass anyway

Most of them are set up as "use it or lose it" in a given period.

The Trouble with (In)flexible Spending Accounts

[MannyGoldstein]

7. So this ObamaCare kiss to Pharma makes it even worse

We're more likely to los it.

[pnwmom]

18. So get your doctor to write a prescription. S/he can write one

for your allergy medicine, etc., with refills for a full year. And your basic check-up is when these prescriptions should be written -- and that is check-up is free. So it seems like you're complaining a lot about nothing.

[Jakes Progress]

24. Yeah, stop complaining about cuts to benefits.

Don't you know that there's a deficit. Gotta pay for the tax relief for Gates et al.

[pnwmom]

27. What cuts? n/t

[Jakes Progress]

30. Gonna play it that way, huh?

Fine. You go ahead. When they cut something you want, see if anyone else cares then.

[boppers]

21. "Pain in the ass".... cute link.

Yeah, I can see a lot of that mis-use/abuse happening.

[AtomicKitten]

31. That's a gratuitously convoluted interpretation of the policy. nt

[Ikonoklast]

32. And Obama made it rain today!1!!!!

Unrec for hysteria.