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New York Press Releases
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(NewYork.CityRegions.Com, November 26, 2012 ) New York, NY -- A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the non-partisan watchdog arm of Congress, states that prescription drug prices did not increase for Medicare consumers when pharmaceutical companies gave the government discounts to help senior citizens deal with a gap in benefits known as the “doughnut hole.” GAO found that prices for brand-name drugs used by Medicare beneficiaries increased at a similar rate before and after the government required discounts in January 2011.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus stated, “This report shows how health reform is working to save seniors $4.8 billion and helping them afford their prescription drugs, closing the doughnut hole. . . We need to help seniors save every dollar they can and that’s exactly what the Affordable Care Act does — reducing seniors’ out-of-pocket costs while providing more benefits.”
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has vowed to overturn the law if elected, even though in 2011, seniors saved about $2.16 billion through the program, as Department of Health and Human Services records show. The 2010 health care law requires a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the gap between traditional and catastrophic coverage in the Medicare drug benefit, or Part D.
As several critics of the law, such as the health insurance industry, worry that the discounts would push prescription costs up for those not within the gap to offset the manufacturer discounts, several members of Congress have asked GAO to investigate.
GAO found that from January 2007 to December 2010, 77 brand-name drugs increased 36% for those within the coverage gap, or before the discount program began, and 35% for those not within the gap. From December 2010 to December 2011, after the program was in place, they increased 13% in both categories. GAO’s findings also mirrored the findings of HHS, though each agency used a different reporting method.
Jim Esquea, assistant secretary for legislation at HHS, stated that Medicare “will continue to manage this program aggressively to ensure that brand-name discounts are applied accurately and timely.”
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