Cost Keeps Stroke Meds Out of Reach for Some, Indicates American Stroke Association Research

[HuckleB]

http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ASA/24833

"Some stroke survivors skip prescribed medications because the cost is too high -- a situation that may be worsening, particularly among young and uninsured patients, researchers found.

According to a national survey of stroke survivors conducted from 2006 to 2009, 30% of those ages 45 to 54 and 60% of those who were uninsured reported that they were nonadherent because they could not afford to buy the medication, according to Deborah Levine, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Both figures were greater than those reported in a similar survey conducted from 1998 to 2002, when cost-related nonadherence was 18% among those 45 to 54 and 39% among the uninsured, Levine reported at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference here.

...

"For clinicians, the important message is we need to ask our patients if they can afford their medications and for those who can't, we need to drastically modify their medication regimen," she said.

..."

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This is not a huge surprise to most, but it's still good to get the hard data and put it before providers, as well as before the public.

[xchrom]

1. recommend -- i found this very interesting --

a situation that may be worsening, particularly among young and uninsured patients, researchers found.'

there's that word -- young.

the very group we always like to think of as healthy.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Horrible, but not surprising.

Too many die because the medicines that they need are made unavailable or unaffordable.

[MineralMan]

3. Whenever my doctor says he's going to prescribe something,

I ask him if it's new. If it is, I ask him to reconsider and prescribe something that's available as a generic. He thinks for a couple of seconds and prescribes something that will work, but will not break my budget. While new medications are sometimes superior than older ones, often they're really not. Older medications work fine for most conditions, and he'd tell me if they didn't. I'm an equal partner in my own health care, and question everything. My doctor and I get along really well. I tried a couple of others, who were dismissive with my questions. My current one now knows me, and works with me.


If you don't ask, you don't get.

[HuckleB]

4. That is good advice.

I do know some MDs who either ask about insurance coverage and finances, and offer the choices (newer name brand vs. generic), with the known pros and cons, to patients, or who generally start with generic medications that provide the same treatment as newer name brands. If only that was definitely standard practice for all.

[LeftishBrit]

5. kick