Prescription Prices Vary Widely by State

The results, published in this month's Journal of General Internal Medicine, showed that two people taking the same prescription drugs but living in different states could face costs that differed by thousands of dollars.

In one example, the researcher analyzed potential drug costs for a 78-year-old woman who needs drugs for osteoporosis, high blood pressure and chronic pain from arthritis and a spine fracture.

According to the study, the patient would pay $4,113 out of her own pocket annually if she chose the lowest-cost plan available in Michigan.
Her costs for the same four medicines would be $16,856 if she selected the lowest-cost plan available in Ohio.

(Read more...)

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Dealing with left-over medications?

The answer isn't as simple as you might think

I plead guilty to having flushed some down the tube before I heard that the Environmental Protection Agency frowns on this method of disposing of prescription drugs.

So where do you take them?

When asking at the local Pharmacy where one should take unused drugs to dispose of them safely, the clerks response was he said he'd check with the pharmacist, and came back with the advice to flush them down the toilet. But the EPA warns us not to do this.

According to the EPA:

"If your throw your pharmaceuticals and health products down the drain or flush them down the toilet, and if your home is connected to a municipal sewage system, some of these of course are going to typically be discharged into lakes, rivers, or oceans, because most waste water treatment plants are not designed to remove or destroy this stuff from waste water."

On the contrary, they may kill the bacteria in the septic system that aids in breaking down the waste in the household waste water. These helpful bacteria are also a component used in sewage treatment plants to break down waste.

But, where do they end up when you get rid of them?

Scientists are finding everything from aspirin to Zoloft in our streams, rivers, and lakes, neither flushing or trashing the old medications is a good method for disposal. Children or animals could get into drugs that are simply tossed into the trash and once they reach the landfill they can trickle down into the ground water.

Okay, Okay...So, what do we do with these drugs?

It is unlawful for pharmacies to take them back for redistribution. (Makes sense, but what a sad thing it could not be done). It is even unlawful to give them to an agency that could use them for its uninsured patients. It is also unlawful to pass them on to family members or friends, although this happens all too often. And at the cost of medicine today, some understand why.

Well, Is It Really Hurting the Fish? (You'd Be Suprised What's Happening To The Fish!)

According to a report on the U.S. EPA Web site, studies have confirmed that female hormones are in such abundance in our rivers and streams that the aquatic life is being affected. They report a feminization of male fish found in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and Japan. This is linked to the exposure to both natural and synthetic estrogens and chemicals that mimic estrogens in the water.

According to U.S. EPA report, the majority of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals are believed to reach the aquatic environments via the effluent released into the streams and rivers by sewage treatment plants.

Investigating the scarcity of fish in the Columbia River in Washington state near the Oregon border, scientists found only female fish, or at least what appeared to be female fish until their DNA was analyzed and many of them were found to actually be males.

The same phenomenon was observed in England and both sites were said to be downstream from sewage treatment plants. Scientists have discovered that male alligators are similarly affected in Lake Apopka, Fla., and they also found many infertile male panthers.

Dr. Leonard Sax said most of the chemicals under study did not exist before 1950. In his study, he found that many of them mimic the action of the female sex hormones called estrogens. Sax said a similar process to that affecting the aquatic animals and other wild life may also be affecting the human male.

No matter which way you choose to dispose of them, It seems the burden is on the person taking the medication or in the case of leftover meds, not taking them.

A Perfect Solution, Not in the U.S., but in Canada

The Canadians have a much better solution. They put the onus on the pharmaceutical companies that produced the drugs. Sounds fairly logical, don't you think?
In most of the Canadian provinces, there is a Medications Return Program whereby people can take their outdated or unused medications to their local pharmacy where they will be held for the pharmaceutical companies.

In 1997, British Columbia established Post-Consumer Residual Stewardship through its Waste Management Act. The Post-Consumer Pharmaceutical Stewardship Association was formed in 2000 to administer the Medications Return Program.

In eight of Canada's provinces, consumers may return, at no charge, residual prescription and over-the-counter medications, vitamin and mineral supplements and natural health products.
It is then up to the pharmaceutical and other manufacturers to dispose of the excess in ways that are acceptable to the Waste Management Act standards or find ways to safely recover the basic drugs for possible recycling.

Why is the U.S. Lagging Behind Here?

Until the United States or individual states are forward thinking enough to adopt a program such as the one in Canada or England or Australia, remember the advice "Don't flush" and check with your local public works department to find out when the next HHW (Hazardous Household Waste) collection will take place.

Medicare Prescription Negotiation

After an at times contentious debate, the House on January 12, 2007, approved the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007 (H.R. 4), legislation to require the HHS Secretary to negotiate prescription drug prices starting in 2008. The Medicare Part D program currently prohibits such negotiations. The mostly partisan vote was 255 to 170. (Read more...)

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Latest on Democrats and Medicare Drug Costs

As Medicare Part D finds its footing in the pharmaceutical industry, drug companies are realizing that the government will continue to play a large role in influencing how an important patient population - seniors - chooses medication and how much it costs. The proposal before the House next week dictates that while pricing can be negotiated by the secretary of health and human services, formularies and specific drugs covered can only be decided by private insurance plans. (Read more…)

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New STDs Information

Study Sheds New Light On Causes Of Common STD (January 4, 2006) -- Oral sex may be a risk factor for nongonococcal urethritis, one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases affecting both men and women, according to a new study in the February 1 issue of the ...
for more information see full story...

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Viagra and Women, No Kidding!

The Other Side of Viagra: Turn Off for Some Women?

Millions of men have been able to enjoy sex again thanks to the famous little blue pill, Viagra. For years it was assumed that a man's rejuvenated sex life would be happily shared by his partner. But in a series of recent studies, researchers are noticing that the passionate romance with anti-impotence drugs does not always cut both ways. (Read More at ScienceDaily...)

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Democrats & Drug Reimporation

Most Democrats support allowing Americans to buy cheaper, FDA-approved medicines from places like Canada, why? Because it's really a matter of reimporting drugs right back into the U.S. where most of them are created to begin with at a cheaper price to the consumer.

Read more at the The Money Party vs. The People Party by David Sirota...

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