Continues to Impact Individual Health InsuranceOctober 2007
Kaiser reported this week that lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry increasingly are targeting state lawmakers as "drug makers find themselves on the defensive, facing tighter regulations and restrictions in many states." And while this might seem to bode well for medical coverage, continued demand for such medications are still keeping
individual health insurance, group coverage, and Medicare costs quite high.
There's been a great deal of legislation lately introduced by state lawmakers to regulate drug industry sales representatives, require publication of all clinical trial data about drug safety and efficacy, and restrict advertising on electronic prescribing software used by physicians and pharmacists. All of this is designed to control prescription drug use, which has skyrocketed in recent years, leading to inflated medical coverage costs.
But at the same time demand for these medicines are very high, and it doesn't seem that doctors are unwilling to prescribe them. In fact, according to the journal
Drug Safety, physicians often ignore or dismiss patient complaints about possible side effects of statins, and don't often know how much such medications cost, or what the patient's individual health insurance covers. Participants in a study regarding statins and their side effects said they complained to their physicians about muscle pain, memory loss, numbness in their hands and feet, or other possible side effects of statins. However, participants said in most cases their physicians attributed the symptoms to aging, denied their link with statins or dismissed them.
Facts on:
Prescription Drug Use
Did you know...
A great deal of legislation introduced by state lawmakers regulates drug industry sales representatives?
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This lack of awareness regarding prescription drug use, side effects, and costs explains exactly why
medical coverage is so burdened by new medications. Patients see them advertised on TV, and ask for them, unaware that many other drugs work just as well. Doctors are happy to prescribe them, and are often unaware of the ramifications of those prescriptions.
The smartest thing anyone can do to keep their individual health insurance, group insurance, or Medicare costs down is to ask for generic drugs, and make these concerns very clear to doctors. By doing so, doctors can be brought into the loop regarding the concerns associated with such medicines, and patients can save themselves a great deal of money.
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