Comments from Grace-Marie Turner …
The AARP started the New Year with a big surprise, issuing a study that concluded the new Medicare drug benefit provides a better deal for most seniors than importing drugs from Canada, which the organization has long supported.
“How is this possible? Everybody knows that Canadian drug prices are usually far lower than American ones,” the AARP Bulletin asks. “That remains true. But Medicare drug coverage is insurance, so enrollees are charged copayments instead of full price … And the private plans that provide it have been scrambling to win over customers with good deals for 2006.”
It’s important to remember that the AARP did support enactment of the drug benefit — amidst much criticism from its liberal friends — and it does offer Medicare drug plans in partnership with UnitedHealth. So they do have a bias.
But the AARP used a variety of examples, from seniors with plans that have low monthly premiums/a $250 deductible/and no coverage in the doughnut hole, to those with higher premiums/no deductibles/and full coverage in the gap. In all but one instance, seniors did better with the Medicare plan than with drugs imported from Canada. (In that one example, the senior needed a low-cost maintenance drug that didn’t reach the deductible.)
Further, the AARP study didn’t include seniors with low incomes and those who have selected integrated Medicare Advantage plans, both of whom would certainly do better than with Canadian imports. The AARP study concluded: “Nearly all of our interviewees would be better off financially, by varying amounts, under a Medicare plan, with those using the most drugs potentially reaping the greatest savings over the year.”
The Canadian Internet drug industry is fighting back, saying their drugs are still cheaper than Medicare’s. But they are missing a key point that the AARP emphasized: The new Medicare drug benefit provides insurance coverage against the risk of high drug expenses, which the Canadian pharmacies can’t offer. (And BTW, does it need to be said again, that importing drugs from Canada is dangerous and illegal?)
