Seniors can't afford life saving medication with new Medicare drug program

[Kadie]

Prescription Ills
Seniors in managed-care plans may pay much more for drugs


By KEN CARLSON
BEE STAFF WRITER


Last Updated: December 21, 2005, 05:06:50 AM PST


While it's touted as a cost-saving program for seniors and the disabled, the Medicare prescription drug program is going to cost substantially more for people enrolled in managed-care plans.

About 38,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties buy health benefits through Kaiser Permanente's Senior Advantage or Pacificare's Secure Horizons plan.

Those residents are being hit with increased premiums and co-payments. And some, such as Rosalie Gregory of Ceres, will pay a lot more for lifesaving medicines.

Gregory, who has Senior Advantage, said she paid $30 a month this year for Gleevec, a drug that she takes for leukemia. The medication has put the cancer in remission and she needs to keep taking it.

But it will cost her $3,700 next year, and her costs for medicines will go from $640 to $4,024, her family says.

more...
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-dp_morning/story/11614697p-12345407c.html

[snacker]

1. AND....this just in...

they can't afford heat this winter either!

[Warpy]

2. "Then better they should die and reduce the surplus population,

good day to you, sir!"

Conservatives think Scrooge was a great hero who went wrong by the end of the story.