Prescription Drug Problem May Be Overprescribing

January 29, 2003

The hot button topic du jour these days seems to be free prescription drugs for Medicare recipients.   The Democrats now have the Republicans treating this issue like a crisis when the real crisis is the alarming increase in people taking prescription drugs.   Looking at it from that standpoint would go a long way in fixing the Medicare prescription drug problem.

There are some facts you should know to allay your fears that grandpa and grandma are going to die unless they get their medication paid for by the government.   Roughly 65 percent of Medicare beneficiaries already have supplemental prescription drug insurance.   Those who simply cannot afford a drug plan qualify for Medicaid, in our case TennCare, where prescription drugs are covered.   Which brings up another fact that dovetails into the main problem.   When Governor Bredesen started looking over the TennCare problem, he made a startling discovery.   Some TennCare patients were getting 65 prescriptions filled per month!   Certainly, some of this is being resold on the black market but not all of it.   TennCare patients are simply over-prescribed and they’re not alone.

Kids are being put on “the teacher’s aide,” Ritalin, in astounding numbers.   Adults are popping anti-depressants like candy with alarming side effects.   Drug stores are appearing on every corner to fill the demand.   We’re bombarded with TV and radio ads for “the purple pill” and others and urged to ask our doctors.   You want to hear an alarming statistic?   Nearly half of the American population is on some kind of maintenance drug.

Don’t get me wrong.   Many of these drugs are, indeed, miracles and have greatly improved, if not saved, the lives of millions.   But even the most casual research will unearth an epidemic of prescription drug dependency.   One pharmacist friend tells me that clearly over half of the prescriptions she fills are unnecessary and many are downright harmful.   Just a few years ago, in her town of around 50,000, her pharmacy was filling under 100 prescriptions per day.   Now they’re filling over 500 and there are pharmacies on every corner doing the same business or more.

Back to the Medicare prescription drug benefit for a moment.   We’ve been paying for Medicare each month out of our paychecks with no promise that drug coverage is included.   So why does everyone now expect it?   Both parties are proposing providing drug coverage for every senior, regardless of income, and nobody has paid into the system for it.  

The first fact we have to face is that not every senior needs assistance with drug benefits.   If we’re going to provide this benefit it must be scaled back drastically from the Democrat and Republican plans to only cover those who really need it.   That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be poor to get the benefit.   Those who have to spend an inordinate amount of their fixed monthly income to buy drugs could benefit.

The second fact we have to face is that far too many people are on far too many drugs.   It’s time we stopped putting people on this medical merry-go-round.   The drug companies need to be a little less aggressive in pushing their product to doctors and doctors need to seek out alternative methods of treating their patients rather than just writing a handful of prescriptions each visit.

Patients also need to show some responsibility.   Just because a doctor has written you a prescription doesn’t mean you’re released of the responsibility to check the drug out.  

We can go a long way in fixing the prescription drug problem and the high costs of drugs if we do a little more looking and a lot less leaping.