许多老年人并未接受救命药物(上)
NEW YORK, Oct 09 (Reuters Health) - Elderly Americans with heart disease will end up spending more money for medication if they do not participate in a prescription drug coverage plan, according to the results of a survey.
Not surprisingly, they are also less likely to use statins--an expensive class of potentially life-saving drugs--if they lack coverage, researchers report in the October 10th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The findings can be used to create a prescription drug plan for elderly Americans, write Dr. Alex D. Federman and colleagues from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. They suggest that policymakers offer "more generously subsidized coverage," enroll more patients in Medicaid, and encourage more states to offer pharmacy-assisted programs.
"Without such interventions, the most vulnerable may fail to receive effective drugs for major chronic illnesses," Federman's team concludes.
In an editorial that accompanies the study, Dr. Thomas S. Bodenheimer from the University of California, San Francisco, argues for lower prescription drug costs.
"To have an even greater impact on improving health, the pharmaceutical industry now needs to support a publicly run Medicare drug proposal granting the government economic clout to reduce drug prices," Bodenheimer writes. "Only then will all elderly persons truly benefit from those valuable prescription products."
Roughly 10 million elderly people in the US lack prescription drug coverage plans, which include Medicaid, Medicare, employer-sponsored coverage, state pharmacy assistance programs and Medigap. While co-payments and reimbursements for some of these programs are high, the costs can be minimal for others, Federman and colleagues note., 百拇医药
Not surprisingly, they are also less likely to use statins--an expensive class of potentially life-saving drugs--if they lack coverage, researchers report in the October 10th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The findings can be used to create a prescription drug plan for elderly Americans, write Dr. Alex D. Federman and colleagues from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. They suggest that policymakers offer "more generously subsidized coverage," enroll more patients in Medicaid, and encourage more states to offer pharmacy-assisted programs.
"Without such interventions, the most vulnerable may fail to receive effective drugs for major chronic illnesses," Federman's team concludes.
In an editorial that accompanies the study, Dr. Thomas S. Bodenheimer from the University of California, San Francisco, argues for lower prescription drug costs.
"To have an even greater impact on improving health, the pharmaceutical industry now needs to support a publicly run Medicare drug proposal granting the government economic clout to reduce drug prices," Bodenheimer writes. "Only then will all elderly persons truly benefit from those valuable prescription products."
Roughly 10 million elderly people in the US lack prescription drug coverage plans, which include Medicaid, Medicare, employer-sponsored coverage, state pharmacy assistance programs and Medigap. While co-payments and reimbursements for some of these programs are high, the costs can be minimal for others, Federman and colleagues note., 百拇医药