Ads for drug company discounts for low-income persons

[AllyCat]

Okay, what is this all about? Is this like the prescription drug cards for seniors? You get discounts on their drugs only hoping that you won't notice you can get something equally effective somewhere else?

It just sounds WAY to altruistic on the part of the drug companies...

Anyone know?

[Sgent]

1. I'm not entirely sure what you mean.

The Bush drug cards were pretty disasterous.

However, if you got the Ushare plan, which was offered by the drug companies, most drugs were available for $10-$15 for those below the poverty level, and still significantly cheaper for those above it.

Drug companies traditionally will give drugs away if the physician's office participates in patient assistance programs.

Now, there are certain drugs/diseases that are excluded, but thes programs have litterally saved hundreds of thousands of lives. You can't get much cheaper than free. The problem with it was the work required by the physicians.

[AllyCat]

4. Specifically hearing ads for Merck on Air America Radio

they go on and on about their cheap prescriptions regardless of ability to pay, yada, yada, yada.

Not sure I believe they are as helpful as they are trying to make it sound, but was wondering what you all thought.

I know that Bush's little gift cards from Big Pharma are a disaster for the most part (sounds like UShare is a good one though), but these seem to come directly to the consumer from specific drug companies to anyone in need. I smell a rat and wanted to know what was up with them.

[CAG]

2. Don't deceive yourself... altruisman and big pharma do not go together

in the same sentence. They use this type of scheme simply to market to the public how "generous" they are. Whats the point of offering $10 off of a $150 prescription that was $130 last year, $110 the year before,$95 the year before that? Next year the $150 scrip will be $175. It doesn't matter if they give us 5% off of their prescription that they will just ramp up by 10% in the next year.

The bottom line is they will get to keep their 20% profit margins (5 times higher than any other non-pharma company) while continuing to shift the publics attention from them to those dern trial lawyers.

[Sgent]

3. I think there's a mismatch

in perception and reality. I'm not a big supporter of pharma, but the discount cards -- if you have the right one, can make a huge difference.

I got my grandparents from $800/month for meds down to $100. That $700 is nothing to sneaze at. I have also repeated this with hundreds of patients.

I agree that many/most of the discount cards are basically worthless, but the UShare Card and a few others are very, very good -- especially if you are near poverty level. Also, there are drug companies that make all of their drugs available for 5-$15/3 months if the person is under the poverty level but over the Medicaid income requirements.

[DocSavage]

5. One Example

Rocephin, a antibiotic mfg by Roche. 1 gm cost to the pharmacy is or was before generics came out last mont 70 bucks or so. It is normally a once a day for 10 days IV drug therapy. Roche will provide this FREE to patients that cannot afford it. The way it worked with us was we filled the prescription, and Roche replace the drug to us. There are programs availabe for low income (real low) to receive free medicine. Take a little research, I mean no company wants to give product away for free but there are programs.