Part D beneficiaries will pay more than veterans, Cosco customers for brand name drugs
A congressional report says drug prices through the new Medicarebenefit are higher than those negotiated for veterans, in Canada andhigh-volume drugstores.
A Medicare official challenged the House Government ReformCommittee report, requested by ranking Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman,D-Calif., as misleading and flawed, the Washington Post reported.
The report concludes 10 popular drugs through 10 well-knownMedicare Part D insurance plans were an average 80 percent higher thanprices negotiated for the Department of Veterans affairs, 60 percentmore than in Canada and 3 percent higher than Costco or Drugstore.com.
The plan increases costs and “makes it doubtful that thecomplicated design of Medicare Part D provides any tangible benefit toanyone but drug manufacturers and insurers,” the report concludes.
Medicare’s Gary Karr called the report “selective and misleading.”
“Now the effort should really be about educating people and notcontinuing the same old rhetoric that they have been saying for twoyears,” Karr told the newspaper.
Get more details on the report from YubaNet.
Or go all out and read the whole thing.