I have just spent three hours trying to understand the What? and Why? of drug costs, starting with a personal situation.
A year ago, I, along with 2.6 million other Americans, have been diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation (AFIB). The most commonly prescribed drug to lower risk of heart attack, or stroke, is Xarelto. Until today, the cost of thirty 20mg pills has been $36.00 with my Medicare D Supplement plan. Without the plan, the cost full U.S. retail price would have been $102.
Today, when renewing my 30 day supply, the Plan D price is $115, and the full retail price is $420...
Simplifying... my cost for a year now $1398.00 up from $432.00
w/o a drug plan, Full price 1 year $5100.00
.
This change for me occurred between August 15 and July15, this year.
........................................................................................
Because my risk factor is low on the CHAD2 Score, I'll go back to .81mg aspirin, or no drugs at all. (risk factor goes from 11% to 7% w/Xarelto).
I'm not concerned but I wonder how many of the other nearly 3 million AFIB patients will die because they can't afford the expense. The drug companies usually offer lower costs for those who can't afford the drug, but when going to the sites to check, find that the "affordability factors" don't qualify for that lower price.
It's easy to pass this off as "They do, because they can" but consider that this is just one drug, out of thousands of patent drugs which have protection against competition, but no limitations on price. Egregious because Pharmaceuticals often spend more money protecting their patents than they do in developing the new drug.
Wikipedia has what I consider to be a particularly good and well researched article about the subject here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_drug
it's about generics, but explains patent drugs in detail.
A year ago, I, along with 2.6 million other Americans, have been diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation (AFIB). The most commonly prescribed drug to lower risk of heart attack, or stroke, is Xarelto. Until today, the cost of thirty 20mg pills has been $36.00 with my Medicare D Supplement plan. Without the plan, the cost full U.S. retail price would have been $102.
Today, when renewing my 30 day supply, the Plan D price is $115, and the full retail price is $420...
Simplifying... my cost for a year now $1398.00 up from $432.00
w/o a drug plan, Full price 1 year $5100.00
.
This change for me occurred between August 15 and July15, this year.
........................................................................................
Because my risk factor is low on the CHAD2 Score, I'll go back to .81mg aspirin, or no drugs at all. (risk factor goes from 11% to 7% w/Xarelto).
I'm not concerned but I wonder how many of the other nearly 3 million AFIB patients will die because they can't afford the expense. The drug companies usually offer lower costs for those who can't afford the drug, but when going to the sites to check, find that the "affordability factors" don't qualify for that lower price.
It's easy to pass this off as "They do, because they can" but consider that this is just one drug, out of thousands of patent drugs which have protection against competition, but no limitations on price. Egregious because Pharmaceuticals often spend more money protecting their patents than they do in developing the new drug.
Wikipedia has what I consider to be a particularly good and well researched article about the subject here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_drug
it's about generics, but explains patent drugs in detail.
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