Healthcare in America

According to a report by Families USA, although the elderly comprise only 13% of the total population, they account for 34 percent of all prescriptions dispensed and 42 cents of every dollar spent on prescription drugs. By 2010, the total prescription drug purchases for the elderly are projected to increase 165 percent to reach $113.6 billion (figure 1).

For the elderly living on fixed incomes, who have numerous other bills to pay, buying medications to treat their chronic conditions is often a "luxury." Currently, Medicare covers the physician's charges but completely ignores the pharmaceutical costs. Approximately 35% of all Medicare beneficiaries are without any insurance for prescription drug coverage.

The federal Medicaid program already receives a substantial discount from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Ideally, a parallel program for all Medicare recipients would effectively end the prescription drug crisis faced by the older Americans. Generic drugs usually cost less than the prototype and if dispensed appropriately the costs of long term hospitalizations and disabilities would decrease.

President Bush's "Immediate Helping Hand" health care reform package provides full prescription drug coverage to seniors earning less than 135% of the poverty rate and partial coverage to those with incomes up to 175 percent of the poverty rate through private health insurance. When the drugs are not an added expense, the patients are more likely to heed the physician's advice, and are less likely to suffer the morbidities associated with major illnesses.

Avoidable hospitalizations were the crux of the recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) report titled Access to Health Care in America. Such preventable hospitalizations may indicate access to health care services at the national level, and serve as a measure of whether access to care was improving or getting worse among vulnerable population groups such as the elderly and immigrants. It will be interesting to see how our society rises to deal with this important issue in the future.