Drug Cost May Vary Greatly By State After Obamacare Implementation

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/drug-cost-by-state-may-vary_n_3265286.html

What thing  does a RPH love more … but changes in a pt’s deductibles and co-pays that the pt didn’t read the notice or wasn’t told ?

From the article:

To try to keep premiums low, some states are allowing insurers to charge patients a hefty share of the cost for expensive medications used to treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other life-altering chronic diseases.

Such “specialty drugs” can cost thousands of dollars a month, and in California, patients would pay up to 30 percent of the cost. For one widely used cancer drug, Gleevec, the patient could pay more than $2,000 for a month’s supply, says the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Although the money for covering uninsured Americans is coming from Washington, the heath care law gives states broad leeway to tailor benefits, and the local approach can also allow disparities to emerge.

Doesn’t all states with their Medicaid pts mandate that they don’t have to pay their co-pays.. if they claim that they can’t pay them?  Could this apply to portions of Obamacare?

It looks like .. in some states .. those pts in the 5%-10% at each end of the bell curve… could find themselves insured and not able to afford the co-pays and deductibles?

As it was stated before.. everyone needed to wait until this bills was passed .. before we could find out what is in it.  At last count the 2 + K page bill has evolved into a 20 + K pages of regulations… and they are not finished with writing all the implementation rules !

Filed under: General Problems