“Today, Garner's life has been returned to her. For example, the Washington Post reports today on Virginia Garner, a teacher in Claremont, California, who takes the new drug Gleevec to stave off her leukemia. The pharmaceutical companies are, indeed, leading a health care revolution. While a $600 annual prescription for two leading cholesterol-reducing drugs may seem expensive, it is the long-term effect of those drugs that helps avert an emergency bypass operation and lengthy hospital stay at an average cost of $300,000, according to the study. The reason: because prescription drugs are more often used for preventive care, they stave off more debilitating, more costly medical conditions requiring expensive and lengthy hospitalization. In fact, a study by Columbia University economist Frank Lichtenberg found that every $1 spent on newer drugs saved $4 in hospital care. Drugs are an increasingly important part of medical care, and funding drug treatment will have some immediate benefit to the health care bottom line. OK, first of all, on one level including drugs in our health care program for seniors makes sense. Thankfully, that plan died in the Senate, but the idea has arrived. That bill was a disaster, and in one stroke would have increased the federal government’s unfunded obligations by a staggering $4 trillion or so.
#FILNER AND THE MONSTER WITHIN ALEX ROTH FULL#
The idea of a drug benefit has a full steam of head in Washington, D.C., after passing the House of Representatives last Congress. The new political reality is that, very soon, taxpayers are going to start paying for medical drugs for senior citizens.
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