Why Bad News Is Not Always Bad

Last month, the cover of BusinessWeek featured an article, How Big Pharma Uses Charity Programs to Cover for Drug Price Hikes, focused on co-pay charities for Medicare patients. I of course had heard about such co-pay charities before, and even had the opportunity to meet with a representative of one a few years ago, but frankly I had no idea what they did. So when the article came out, outlining the "evils" of this practice, it caught my attention. By catching my attention, it actually saved my elderly parents significant amounts of money. My father and mother are both retired, living on a small pension and Social Security. Both have high LDL cholesterol and have had serious reactions to statins, a drug used for treating cholesterol. Statins are one of the most effective therapies in treating high LDL cholesterol. My parents had tried every statin, except one: Lavalo (pitivastatin). When they eventually went on that statin, they did not see the side effects they had seen while taking others in that class. The only problem is that pitvistatin is still branded and comes with a significant co-pay, somewhere around $200/month. My father has also had reactions to Coumadin, an older blood thinner with a long list of restrictions, including not eating dark green vegetables such as lettuce, kale, and spinach. If my father were still ten years old, such a restriction may not be a problem; however, he loves eating salad and actually likes broccoli. Being on Coumadin also requires ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs