Perspective               

Drug Prices To Rise for Older Adults on Medicare

If you are an older or disabled American with Medicare, you may feel that your drug costs are soaring. According to a recent survey conducted by Families USA, this feeling is more than your imagination. The report showed that older adults are paying twice as much for their prescription drugs as they did in 1992. Furthermore, these prices are expected to rise over the next decade.

The report showed that the average annual prescription drug spending for each older individual in 1992 was $559, compared to $1,205 in 2000. The estimated drug spending in 2010 is an astonishing $2,810 per person. Drug spending is increasing for two reasons. Drug prices are up and doctors are now typically prescribing more drugs than they used to.

This increase in the number of drugs doctors are prescribing stems from more direct advertising of prescription drugs to consumers, less hospital inpatient care, and the development of new drugs. In addition, modern pharmaceutical companies have been creating more advanced and effective drugs.

Today, prescription drugs account for nearly 10 percent of older and disabled Americans' health costs. The burden of paying for prescriptions mainly affects adults over 65 and people with disabilities, who use 42 percent of the prescriptions filled in America today. The best way to ease this burden for people with Medicare is to revise Medicare standards to include a prescription drug benefit. If you feel that you are having difficulty paying for your prescription drugs, contact your Senator or Congressperson to let them know.

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