Gephardt, Berkley urging prescription help for seniors

Kim Smith

Friday, Jan. 14, 2000 | 10:31 a.m.

When Las Vegas resident James Ridley came out of the hospital two years ago with four new prescriptions to add to the 10 he was already taking, he was not happy.

Juggling 14 medications a day is not an easy task. Paying for them ended up breaking him.

Ridley, 71, and his wife, Jackie, 70, spoke about their difficulties during a 30-minute press conference Thursday with House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

At the press conference Berkley reported that Southern Nevada's seniors are paying an average of 92 percent higher for the five drugs most used by seniors than seniors in Canada. They are paying 91 percent more than Mexican seniors.

According to the report, a one month supply of the drug Zocor, which blocks an enzyme that makes cholesterol, costs $112 in Nevada, but $46 in Canada and $68 in Mexico.

Seniors, 35 percent of whom don't have prescription drug coverage, simply cannot afford such exorbitant prices, Berkley said.

The high prices, combined with the lack of adequate coverage, prompted Berkley and Gephardt Thursday to ask Nevadans to back President Clinton's idea for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Right now, Medicare does not pay for patients' prescription drugs. However, should Clinton's proposal see fruition, Medicare would pay for half of the beneficiary's drug costs up to $5,000 per year and offer an estimated 10 percent discount on prescriptions after the limit is reached.

Jackie Ridley said that something obviously needs to be done. She and her husband, who have an HMO, were paying more than $1,500 a month for drugs after his July 1998 hospital stay because he had reached his annual drug cap.

"We asked doctors for samples, and we substituted drugs when we could," Jackie Ridley said. "Thank God, we could see a light at the end of the tunnel. We knew that the New Year was going to start in five months. People on Medicare aren't so lucky."

Jackie Ridley, who also is a volunteer Medicare counselor, said she regularly hears heartbreaking stories from Medicare patients.

"When people call me they are just devastated," Jackie Ridley said. "They're going along and then all of a sudden they're hit by something. They call me, and they ask 'Do I buy drugs or do I eat?' Which is the fastest way to die is what it amounts to."

While individuals are encouraged to write letters and make phone calls, Nevadans need to "form groups of seniors who can raise an even louder voice," Gephardt said.

In a telephone interview after the press conference, Jeff Trewhitt, spokesman for Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, said pharmaceutical companies don't dispute that changes need to be made.

In fact, the organization is supportive of the "Breaux-Frist Bill" -- a bi-partisan bill authored by John Breaux, a Democrat from Louisiana, and Bill Frist, a Republican from Tennessee.

If passed, Medicare-eligible seniors would be provided a voucher that would allow them to shop for the managed care provider that would give them the best coverage possible, Trewhitt said. Or, the seniors who prefer the more traditional fee-for-care system could use the voucher toward the expenses they incur.

Trewhitt said Mexico residents pay less for drugs because they make far less money than U.S. citizens. Canada, on the other hand, operates under price controls. While drugs may be cheaper there, they also don't do much research and development, he said.

Prices are going up in the U.S. because the cost of research and development is going up, Trewhitt said. In 1985, $4 billion was spent on research and in 1999, the price tag was $24 billion.