S2, Ep 8- Why Are Drugs So Expensive for Seniors?

Mary’s story is familiar to far too many senior citizens who are living on fixed incomes. They have no choice but to pay thousands of dollars a year on medications that are not covered by insurance. What could be done to help them? In the Medicare program, "we tend to cover everything cheap, which is basically the generic medicines. When patients require more expensive drugs. the coverage becomes less and less,” says Dr. Robert Popovian, Chief Science Policy Officer at Global Healthy Living Foundation. “That means they're exposed to those prices more and more, which makes absolutely no sense because it goes against the premise of what insurance should be.” Among the highlights in this episode: 1:47: Listener review 3:05: Setting the stage: a senior citizen named Mary pays $200/month for a single heart disease pill 3:39: Why are seniors on fixed incomes forced to pay high costs for life-saving medications? 4:36: Describing the prescription drug coverage from Medicare Part D 5:44: Medicare and Medicaid recipients do not have access to patient assistance programs 7:24: In layman’s terms, the health care system covers cheap drugs and not expensive ones 9:24: The convoluted mechanism surrounding brand-name medications 9:56: How Mary ends up paying more for brand-name, life-saving medications 10:57: AARP’s conflict by having a partnership with the three large pharmacy benefit management companies 11:38: How we can help provide hope for Mary and other seniors on fixed incomes 12:36: Seniors need to vote to impact legislation Contact our hosts: Dr. Robert Popovian, Chief Science Policy Officer at GHLF: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) Conner Mertens, Patient Advocate and Community Outreach Manager at GHLF: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) We want to hear what you think. Send your comments, or a video or audio clip of yourself, to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . Listen to all episodes of Healthcare Matters on our website (https://ghlf.org/healthcarematters/) or on your favorite podcast channel. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.