Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Medicaid and Medicare

New Medicare Drug Plans Fail to Provide Meaningful Drug Price Discounts in the San Francisco Bay Area

At the request of Reps. Honda, Lantos, Lee, Lofgren, Miller, Pelosi, Stark, Tauscher, Thompson, and Woolsey, this report examines whether the Republican promises of low drug prices have been achieved in the San Francisco Bay Area. The analysis in the report is based on a comparison of the drug prices offered in the region by ten leading Medicare drug plans with four benchmarks: (1) the drug prices negotiated by the federal government and available on the Federal Supply Schedule; (2) the drug prices paid by consumers in Canada; (3) the drug prices currently available online through Drugstore.com; and (4) the drug prices currently available at Costco stores. The drugs whose prices are evaluated in the report were the ten best-selling drugs among seniors in 2004.