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Archives | (July 2003)
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The Prescription Drug Benefit: Boon or Boondoggle? (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 2 of 6 Although it seems nonsensical, while the plan would pay hundreds of dollars for drugs to treat conditions, it will not pay for preventative measures or for cheaper, natural alternatives. For example, it will pay almost $70 for 30 tablets of Fosomax, a drug used to treat osteoporosis, but not the $3.12 for a bottle of calcium tablets to prevent it. It will pay $174 for a bottle of 50 Vioxx tablets, to treat arthritis pain, but not $12 for a bottle of 60 glucosamine and chondroitin tablets that are as effective and have fewer side effects. It will pay almost $240 for a month’s supply of Prilosec to treat peptic ulcers, but not $13 for a month’s supply of L-glutamine to prevent them. It will pay anywhere from $800 to $1,400 for six vials of Procrit to treat anemia, but not a few dollars for an iron tablet and some Dong Quai to help keep anemia from developing in the first place. And why is it that safe, natural remedies – even ones like glucosamine and chondroitin that have substantial clinical evidence of effectiveness – are excluded from the various benefit schemes? The reason is that there is more at stake in their exclusion than simple cost. It would be a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that safe natural alternatives to expensive prescription drugs exist – and that’s something “Big Pharma” and its allies in the medical establishment and government are not about to let happen. If it did, their whole approach to medicine – treatment after the fact rather than prevention – would be called into question, and with it their control over health care in the United States! But it’s not just that the focus will be on treatment after the fact rather than prevention that is a problem in the current approach to a prescription drug benefit. It is also what the government is likely to pay for the drugs in the first place. There is no doubt that many drugs are beneficial and have their place in medical care. Prevention does not always succeed and there is not always a natural alternative that is as effective as available pharmaceutical options. But that does not mean that a prescription drug benefit plan should not seek the lowest possible price when pharmaceutical products are the only alternative. |
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