Discount Drug Cards Create Confusion

Beware politicians and pharmaceutical firms that promise lower prices for life-saving medicine. What do they deliver?
During the last election, the high cost of prescription drugs was a major campaign issue. Congressmen vowed that they would do something about the plight of older Americans who sometimes have to choose between groceries and essential medications.
As soon as the ballots were counted, though, the issue of prescription drug prices moved to the back burner. Medicare still does not cover most prescriptions. While many working people have insurance that helps them pay for medicine, senior citizens still have to pay huge amounts for medicines like Prilosec, Nexium, Celebrex, Vioxx, Lipitor or Zocor out of their own pockets.
Pharmaceutical companies, recognizing that their popularity with the public has reached an all-time low, have come up with a dizzying array of drug-discount cards. But will these programs actually save older people substantial sums-or are they mostly a public relations tactic?
If you can get past the confusion factor, it may be possible to save money. But there are so many cards and so many different options, it can be hard to sort out which one, if any, makes sense.
Some cards require an annual fee, for example, while others tack on a transaction charge each time you use the card. Cards are available from drug companies, chain drug stores, insurance companies and nonprofit organizations.
Discounts can vary dramatically. Even on the same drug company card the cost of one medicine may be cut by 25 percent and a different drug may be 50 percent off. If your doctor has prescribed pills from several different manufacturers, you might need a handful of cards to get the discounts. Figuring out which card to use for each prescription could be quite a challenge.
There are also stringent income requirements for some of the best discount drug cards. For example, one company requires that an individual can earn no more than $18,000 per year ($24,000 for couples). Some experts estimate that only about 30 to 40 percent of senior citizens on Medicare are eligible for meaningful discounts.
If your medicine costs $120 a month, a 20 percent savings brings the bill down to just under $100. That’s still a budget buster for many families. When you need six or more prescriptions monthly, that kind of savings is welcome but is clearly not the solution to the price problem.
The answer to all the confusion is a single card or plan that would provide prescription drug coverage for all Medicare recipients. That would ease the burden of high medication costs. Of course, it won’t do a thing for the working poor or anyone else who can’t afford insurance with prescription drug benefits.
Until Congress honors its promises, people will have to keep scrambling.
Getting free samples, asking for generics and shopping comparatively from one pharmacy to another or even on the Internet can all save money. So can buying medicine from Canada. A handful of drug discount cards, confusing as that may be, may also help control costs.