Cancer chemotherapy pills are hard to afford for the elderly

Cancer chemotherapy pills are hard to afford for the elderly Cancer chemotherapy is now available in pill form, but seniors covered by Medicare may not be able to afford it...

Cancer chemotherapy pills are now available in pill form, but seniors covered by Medicare may not be able to afford it because Medicare The prescription drug plan stipulates that patients who use new cancer drugs will be charged high copayments (copays), which can reach tens of thousands of dollars per year. Rita, 65, of Corcoran, California. After Moore had surgery for kidney cancer in February, doctors prescribed Sutent, a capsule chemotherapy drug that can be taken at home. When she went to the pharmacy to buy medicine, she discovered that the monthly cost of the medicine was 2,400 yuan, which was more than her income. Private insurers that provide Medicare prescription drugs say the problem is because drug companies charge too much and some drugs are developed using taxpayer-funded research. But drug companies blame insurance companies because copays for new drugs are higher than copays for other medical services, such as hospitalization. Some experts believe the problem lies in the design of Medicare's prescription drug benefit system, which allows insurers to classify expensive drugs as specialty tiers, where copays can account for 25 percent of the drug's cost or more. Drugs to treat multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and hepatitis C, like cancer pills, are classified as specialty drugs for which Medigap, Medicare's supplemental insurance, does not cover copays. Mendelson, president of research firm Avalere Health Insurance, said that this is a design problem of the Medicare benefit system. The purpose of co-payment should only be to avoid wasteful treatment. "It is difficult to imagine that patients prescribed cancer drugs will not need these drugs." Research published last month in the Journal of Oncology showed that people who do not buy cancer pills account for nearly 16% of Medicare beneficiaries, but only 9% of those receiving private health insurance company benefits. People with copays over $500 accounted for 46% of Medicare beneficiaries and only 11% of private health insurance companies. Across all ages, one in four people skipped a drug because the copay exceeded $500, and cancer rates are higher among older adults. Coleman, Medicare's medical director, said they currently have no plans to make changes to the prescription drug benefit system. "We take this issue more seriously than anyone else."