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Senior Slant
Medicare Drug Card Sign-up Begins Today, But Seniors
Should Wait Before Joining
By Tucker Sutherland, editor
May 3, 2004 – Beginning today, senior citizens can
sign up for a $30 Medicare-approved drug discount card, but there is no
reason to be in a hurry. The discounts will not be available until next
month and you may not have all the information you need to make the best
choice in a card. Last Friday, some of those card sponsors were claiming
that prices on drugs for their cards that were posted on Thursday by
Medicare are inaccurate.
"Everybody seems to
be finding problems with inaccuracies with the posted prices," said
Walgreens' spokeswoman Laurie Meyer to the Associated Press. Prices for
generic drugs offered by the Walgreens' drug card "were noticeably
higher," Meyer said. "They were wrong."
Even Medicare
cautioned when the drug prices were posted that all information may not
be included, but said they will update the site every Monday. The site
is actually managed by DestinationRx, a small, California-based company
hired by Medicare without seeking bids.
Being able to
compare prices – accurate prices - among the drug cards for the
specific prescription drugs a consumer requires is critical to making
the right choice.
Medicare is
predicting that the discount cards will save recipients up to 25 percent
on their drug costs, but many othesr say there are better savings
outside the Medicare program. Seniors can get similar prices, without
discounts, through online pharmacies, private discount cards and do much
better with Canadian pharmacies.
Prices offered by
the cards are higher than those charged by Canadian pharmacies that
state and local governments are beginning to link up with on behalf of
their employees, retirees and residents. The Bush administration
strongly opposes imported drugs.
But while the Bush
administration was touting the savings offered by the new cards, the
best prices on the Medicare Web site also were available Thursday at
such online pharmacies as Washington state-based drugstore.com,
according to the Associated Press.
The best Medicare
mail order prices for three best-selling brand name drugs - the
arthritis drug Celebrex, the osteoporosis drug Fosamax and
cholesterol-lowering Lipitor - were at least a third higher than prices
at the three Canadian pharmacies listed on the State of Wisconsin's
online prescription drug resource center, the AP reported.
Congressional
Democrats opposed the Medicare law as a giveaway to drug companies and
insurers. They said legalizing drug imports from Canada - opposed by the
White House - and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with
pharmaceutical companies - expressly banned in the Medicare law - would
bring prices down.
Studies released
late Thursday by Democrats in the House of Representatives and Families
USA, a consumer health care group, reported that prices negotiated by
the Veterans Administration also were considerably lower than those
offered by Medicare discount cards.
The confusion about
the benefits and value of these Medicare drug cards is getting worse,
rather than better. The most prudent decision today – the first day you
can join a card program – is to wait. Give Medicare at least a week to
get the prices straight on their Website and watch to see how the free
market responds. |
