Medicare and Pharamcies

I hit that magic 65 last June and went from my wife's really good insurance to Medicare with lots of Medigap insurance. It hasn't been too bad but the medication stuff has been a pain. There has been some increases in out of pocket expenses. The two most costly medications I take went from $60 to over $130 out of pocket. Also there has been some really odd increases for stuff that had been free or a $20 co-pay. I use insulin and the price of the needles is outrageous to say the least. It cost $112 for 300 needles the last time. Why? The insulin is unusable without them and in my mind they should come with the insulin when you refill that.

Also there seems to be more paperwork than ever. When I do refill the needles and test strips there is paperwork that has to be filled out by the doctor before you can get them refilled. He is basically certifying that you are using them. Really? Again the insulin is unusable without the needles and you need the test strips to know how much you need to take. It would seem to me that if the government was trying to control costs they would stop some of this unnecessary paperwork and trust the doctors to know what their patients need, at least when it comes to diabetes.

Insulin has been in the marketplace since the 1920's but there is no generic for it. This is partially because it is a biologic and not a chemical. The government and FDA control the chemical stuff but allow the pharmaceuticals free reign when it comes to biologic based medications. So, no generics and super high costs. Insulin is an $8 billion a year cash cow for the pharmaceutical companies in the USA.