Prescription drug prices make Americans sick, regardless of politics
Vivian Leal has Multiple Sclerosis. The company that makes the drug she needs called and offered to lower her copay.
“Five dollars. That’s good for me,” Leal told federal and state lawmakers at a roundtable Tuesday in Las Vegas. “That’s as long as I bill private insurance. ‘No government sources,’ they said. That’s so they could bill $90,000 for the year. And they call that charity.”
Leal is referring to a Co-Pay Assistance program, in which patients on drug regimens sign up (usually via the drug company’s website) and receive significantly lower co-payments.
While the drug company is on the hook for the remainder of the co-pay, it can charge private insurers tens of thousands of dollars a year for the drug, and in some cases, write off the cost of the co-pay as a charitable subsidy.
Read more: https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2019/08/21/prescription-drug-prices-make-americans-sick-regardless-of-politics/