Hi all:
Well, I found the article that I made reference to a few days back. It is
in the June 3rd edition of an excellent newspaper and is written by Betsy
MccCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of NY and a senior fellow at the
Hudson Institute. It is too lengthy to quote in its entirety but I will
attempt to quote its salient points so bear with me if it is of interest:
"Gov't Pushes Generic Drugs, But At What Cost To Health?
Insurance companies have spun a medical myth that generic drugs save
money and are as good as brand-name drugs. Congress and lawmakers in many
states are falling for it....
This push for generic drugs is a mistake. Relying on generics could
lower your chance of recovery, force you to stay longer in the hospital and
increase your risk of side effects. Relying on generics also will push the
nation's health spending higher. It will not save money. Unfortunately,
most lawmakers don't know the facts about generics. Here they are :
By definition, generics are yesterday's drugs. They ought to be called
patent-expired drugs,
Federal law lets generic drug companies copy a brand-name drug once
its patent expires, usually after it has been on the market 12 years.
The issue isn't whether the generic drug is as good as the 12-year-old
brand name it copies. Chances are, it is. But medical knowledge is moving
so quickly that a 12-year-old drug-whether it's a brand name name or
not-could be a poor choice.
Are newer drugs better for you?
In general, yes. That has been proved in a study of 23,230 patients
by Columbia University health expert Frank Lichtenberg. Patients treated
with newer drugs had lower death rates and better recoveries....Newer drugs
reduced doctors'visits, nursing home care and emergency-room treatment.
Patients on newer drugs "had significantly fewer hospital stays than
persons consuming older drugs." That's key, because hospital stays account
for 42% of total medical spending.
Then, why do insurance companies encourage using generics?
Most managed care companies take a short term approach, because their
enrollees stay wth a plan less than two years on average before moving to
another
one.
Why pay for new, more expensive drugs to lower someone's cholestrol or
protect him from ulcers, when the long-term rewards will go to a competing
insurance company? A grandmother and office worker in New Jersey who has
constant pain in her hand from arthritis felt most arthritis drugs "felt like
they are burning a hole in my stomach". She wanted to take Celebrex, a newer
anit-inflamatory that eliminates gastrointestinal irritation. Her insurer
refused to pay, saying she would have to suffer with older, chepaer drugs
such as ibuprofen until she actually developed bleeding. So much for
preventive medicine.
Should government discourage brand-name companies from advertising on
television?
Absolutely not. The ads empower patients. Without advertising, many
patients would not know to ask about newer treatments. Some doctors don't
recommend newer,more expensive drugs because insurers penalize them for doing
so.
Insurers would like you to think the biggest difference between
brand-name drugs and generics is the cost of advertising. The truth
is...it's not advertising that makes drugs expensive, it's the years of
scientific research to develop them.
Are older drugs safer?
Michigan Blue Cross argues older drugs are "tried and true" and thus
safer. Tried,yes. True, no.
Missing out on the newest drugs is far more dangerous to your health
than the minute risk that a newly approved drug could be unsafe. Hundreds of
thousands of lives have been saved by new drugs for cancer, heart disease and
stroke.
Favoring generics over new drugs is bad public policy.
...The elderly should have immediate access to the latest drugs.
What about co-payments? That's fine to reduce the cost to taxpayers
of a Medicare drug benefit. But co-payments should not be greater for buying
newer drugs than generics. Discouraging the elderly from taking the newest
medications will endanger their health and cost the nation more, not less.
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