May 4, 2004
I Can Get It For You Wholesale... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes."
First, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services let out a press release lauding the fact that it has hired a thousand new telephone support workers along with the introduction of a spanking new website. Before the administration could finish taking its political bow, shouts could already be heard.
The brouhaha centered around the new Medicare drug discount cards available from chain stores, pharmacies and other sponsors. Or more importantly, choosing which one a person should select, given their particular medications and/or where they happen to live.
Before you think this is a challenge thatıs begins to be manageable, you might consider the fact that there are some 70 cards to choose from and the people who need it most are the poorest of our seniors.
Still, things went along swimmingly until somebody checked the data on the web site.
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To create the online comparison data, the government hired DestinationRx, a company that anyone can find on the Web. It describes itself as ³your pharmacy discount buying service,² and exhorts you to ³find the lowest online prices from our trusted vendors.² These vendors are at the very heart of the discount cards: From Walgreens to Costco to even the AARPıs Pharmacy Services, a watchdog group if ever there was one, out to represent the best interests of its members.
So, how could a company which advertises the fact itıs already saved its online customers over $300 million botch the data? Well, some of the vendors missed the deadline for posting, and others like Walgreens claim they simply sent incorrect data, but most interesting of all was the fact that Medicare officials directed DestinationRX to post the highest possible price that any drug card sponsor might possibly charge for a drug.
You could imagine how these retail giants responded they compete on lowest price, not highest. Officially, Medicare claimed they just wanted to protect the consumer. There would be no surprises costing you more money after you selected a card and then picked up your prescription. But posting on the official government web site should guarantee the price, right?
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From a practical standpoint, the poorer you are, the more you need these cards. You can receive these discount cards for free and get $600 paid-for prescriptions. You may even be able to choose between life-sustaining medication and say, a decent hot meal every other day. But these cards are for everyone at every level of income. And here, the folks on the affluent side of the Digital Divide are the ones who are ultimately going to make it better for everyone.
Any mature citizen or his or her Internet-savvy support team can go out to the net and find plenty of discounts better than whatıs offered on the new government site. And some of the deepest discounts import drugs from Canada, which is a little like finding out that your next-door neighbor gets to buy everything at Home Depot for half of whatever it is you pay.
Thereıs a problem brewing here, and itıs a problem bigger than it appears. The economics of pharmaceuticals in the US not to mention worldwide is beginning to fail, and itıs failing fast. Information available to everyone on the net punctures any premise that the modest discount elicited by the government on these over-priced drugs is a good deal.
Iım telling you right now any politician who wants to get elected might want to consider this campaign slogan: ³I can get it for you wholesale.²
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
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