Study: Brand-Name Drugs’ High Copays Soak Medicare Part D Patients

(By Rachel Bluth for Kaiser Health News)

A new study takes a fresh measure of generic drugs’ price advantages, revealing how much more Medicare Part D patients shelled out in copayments for two popular brand-name drugs in 2013.

The result: 10.5 times more.

Copayments averaged $42 for both Crestor, a cholesterol medication, and Nexium, taken for acid reflux, according to researchers whose study was published Wednesday in Health Affairs.

The consumers’ cost for generic therapeutic equivalents was $4, they said.  Read article here……

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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