Drug Producers Expand Their Prescription Drug Help
The present economic decline has affected scores of american’s capability to pay for their medicine. Some drug companies are responding with improved prescription medicine support. Merck, which makes Singulair for asthma, Januvia for diabetes and Fosamax for osteoporosis, increased the amount of total annual income a household can take home and yet qualify for free of charge prescription medication in March. Patients making less than $43,000 and families of four making lower than $88,000 right now can qualify for aid with prescriptions. Merck says it has helped 1.7 million patients with $1.6 billion of medicine over the last seven years. Help for prescription drugs is finally here!
“We are committed to helping patients, and that commitment is evident in the $140 million of financial assistance we provided in 2008,” representative Shannon Altimari from drug maker Biogen claims. Biogen Idec provides aid for prescription drug Avonex and Tysabri which is used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Pfizer announced a program at an earlier time this year called Maintain that offers free of charge prescription medicine to out of work Americans who could do with prescription help. Maintain is simply one of more than a few patient assistance programs that the company provides.
AstraZeneca just announced that it was changing its medication assistance program to make available assistance earlier to a number of patients. The company’s program offers at no cost prescription drugs or low-cost medicine to uninsured, low-income people. AstraZeneca said in a statement that it “would immediately extend assistance to qualifying patients who have lost their jobs, had their incomes reduced or had a change in marital status or family size”. The company said these types of individuals had been having problems qualifying for prescription as their tax returns showed excessively high an income. Qualifying people can currently sign up by providing certification of their current earnings and family size, AstraZeneca said.
Matthew White is a patient that has experienced such troubles. The 40 -year-old plumber was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008 . His income from social security and a minor disability policy hardly covers his mortgage, health bills, and other living expenses. “I have tried all sorts of things to find out if I can find prescription medication help,” he states. He called the prescription medication companies, Social Security, and his health care provider’s office. He has furthermore followed quite a few leads on the Internet and lastly found a company that would deal with all of the paperwork for him. He has finally found the prescription drug help that he needs.
His prescription drug cost over $275 a month and his health care costs are more than $300 per month. “There were times when I have had to miss out taking my prescription drugs for a day or two,” he admits. He is not convinced what the future holds for him but at least at present he is getting the help with prescriptions that he needs.
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