Medicare drug benefit is virtually worthless

The following editorial appeared Monday in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times:

The marketplace Congress created for Medicare prescriptions is looking more like Neiman Marcus than Wal-Mart. Though the government has flooded the market with 43 million seniors, the group discount is, at best, pennies on the dollar.

New price comparisons compiled by Families USA, in fact, reveal a Medicare drug plan that is gouging seniors and taxpayers alike. Here’s one jarring example:

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pays $253 for a year’s supply of Protonix, a common prescription for acid reflux. The lowest-priced Medicare Part D insurance company in two regions offers the drug for $1,080.

Oddly enough, price never has seemed to matter to the self-described conservatives in Congress who approved the Medicare Modernization Act. They were so eager for pharmaceutical and insurance industry campaign donations and so enamored by privatization that they refused to accept the lessons of their own VA. Through its group purchasing power, the VA has been able to get deep discounts on generic and brand-name prescriptions and even for drugs that are not on its formulary.

Now that the Medicare prescription companies have released their prices, the differences are impossible to ignore. And these are not matters of degree. Of the 20 most common drugs for seniors, the median price differential between VA and Medicare Part D is 48 percent. The VA pays $497 for a year’s supply of Lipitor, used to lower cholesterol levels, and the lowest price for Medicare plans is $718. …

The Medicare prescription plan, thanks to the conservatives who created it, amounts to a government-created and government-subsidized economy with virtually no buying power. …