Medicare prescription savings from new health care law pass $1B mark

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare says seniors with high prescription costs have saved more than $1 billion thanks to the new health care law.

President Barack Obama's health care overhaul provides Medicare recipients in the coverage gap called the "doughnut hole" with a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs this year, and a smaller break on generics. The discounts gradually increase until the coverage gap closes in 2020.

Officials said Friday about 2 million people with Medicare saved more than $1.2 billion on prescriptions through the end of September, averaging $550 per person.

The biggest category accounting for the savings was diabetes medications. Cholesterol drugs and medications for asthma and other lung diseases came next.

Next year, seniors will get the same 50 percent discount on brand drugs, and a bigger one on generics.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hWASqV__2nndGErMlDfXSVQYt82w?docId=cccffd22d39043f6abe945810f6f0ffe

[area51]

1. A better question,

is why drugs are so expensive in this country, given that our tax dollars are used in the research and development of said drugs. We're being double-charged.

[MedicalAdmin]

2. It's even worse than that.

We are charged an arm and a leg for drugs that were developed in other countries and laid for by other tax payers.

We are getting hosed and fleeced.

[bigtree]

3. right

the benefits are a band-aid against the barbarism of renegade profiteers enabled by their shareholders in Congress.