by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Dec 31, 2013 | Advocacy, Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation, Pharmaceutical Industry, Politics
This article summarizes good things and bad that are happening online with drug prices and savings, economics, legislation, politics, and even ethics that relate to access by Americans to more affordable medication offered by safe international online pharmacies. If you’re a consumer – especially an American consumer facing high drug costs – you should read this. When you’re done (or even right now!) we recommend joining RxRights to help play a role in making medication more affordable for all Americans.
Next year, we’re planning to focus more attention on local Americans pharmacies: what they’re doing right, wrong, and in between, and how you can save and take advantage of their in-store opportunities to improve your health! But for now, the international online pharmacy report…
The Good
The money Americans could save on brand name drugs by shopping at safe international online pharmacies continued to increase in 2013. In 2011 , we reported potential savings of 80%, then a mind-boggling 85% in 2012, and now 87.6% in 2013! Savings have proliferated because America’s trading partners, such as Australia, Canada, the states of the European Union, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Turkey, generally, have kept brand drug prices stable, whereas in America they increased by an estimated 13% last year.
The pricing data referred to above is from our prescription drug price savings research released this past September. In that report we looked at popular prescription drugs that are not always covered by health insurance plans, including new plans offered as a result of Obamacare. An extreme example of savings is on the drug Abilify 10 mg, a medication prescribed for depression; $9,007.08 could be saved annually by purchasing the drug from the lowest-cost online pharmacy verified by PharmacyChecker.com compared with a retail pharmacy in New York City. A more common example of potential annual savings from international pharmacies is the $3,935.28 savings on Spiriva Handihaler 18 mcg. Drug prices are out of control in the U.S., especially for those with no domestic generic alternative, and access to international online pharmacies is as urgent as ever.
It would, of course, be better if Americans could find more reasonable prices on brand name drugs at their local pharmacies.
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Tagged with: BeSafeRx, CSIP, FDA, ICANN, international online pharmacy, NABP, RxRights
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Dec 19, 2013 | Advocacy, Drug Prices
Americans with cancer are two times as likely to go bankrupt than other Americans due to the expense of treatment, including astronomical prices for prescription drugs. As reported by ABC News the alternative to bankruptcy is sometimes death.
This blog’s focus is often on international online pharmacies as a lifeline for high drug prices in the U.S. When it comes to cancer medications, online pharmacies are not always a solution since many can only be administered in a clinical setting are not suitable for mail-order pharmacy. However, some cancer meds are suitable for mail order pharmacy, and can be found for much cheaper prices from an international online pharmacy as opposed to a U.S. pharmacy.
Bristol Myers Squibb’s product Sprycel, which treats leukemia, costs $11,000 (60 pills, 50 mg) at a CVS in New York City pharmacy. The same quantity is available from a PharmacyChecker.com approved pharmacy for $5,509, or 50% cheaper. That’s $60,000 savings a year, a discount higher than the median household income in the U.S., and for some the difference between life and death.
Tagged with: Bristol Myers Squibb
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Dec 6, 2013 | Drug Prices, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Drug Plans
Your prescription drugs will never be free under Medicare Part D. The “closed” donut hole under Obamacare does not create a new coverage period under Part D during which your co-pays and co-insurance, not to mention deductibles and premiums, disappear. That’s not a reason to complain. We should shoulder costs for our healthcare, including medication, as long as they are affordable (after all, Obamacare is actually called the Affordable Care Act). So how does Obamacare strive to help you afford your prescription drugs if you’re on Medicare? First, a little history…
In the beginning, Medicare did not offer a prescription drug benefit and tens of millions of seniors paid for their medications entirely out-of-pocket. Let there be light: In 2003, Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act, which was then signed into law by President Bush. That law gave birth to Part D – a prescription drug benefit available to Medicare enrollees. But there were holes! When Medicare Part D plans first launched in 2006, average monthly premiums were $25.93. After paying a standard deductible of $250, enrollees paid 25% of their drug costs until total drug costs (between the enrollee and insurer) reached $2,250. That’s $250 towards the deductible, $500 in cost-sharing, plus premiums of $311.16 for a total of $1,061.16 per year in out-of-pocket spending. That’s if you stayed out of the donut hole!
Enter the dark days of the “donut hole,” which, in 2006, meant 100% out-of-pocket spending between $2,250 and $5,100 – Ouch! Above $5,100 – an amount called, for good reason, “catastrophic costs” –enrollees only paid 5% of their drug costs. Part D maintained these basic components, except with rising costs in the form of higher premiums and deductibles, and a larger “donut hole,” until the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 – enter Obamacare (hope and change?).
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Tagged with: donut hole, Medicare Part D, Obamacare
