Rubatex Information

Rubatex Msds By Staff

Please let me know your position on this issue. Sincerely, _____________ The United States Senate Washington, D.C. Americans pay the highest prices in the world for their prescription medications. Shifting high drug prices to Medicare only means that the burden is transferred to the taxpayer. approved drugs from other countries. The price of these identical medications is 30% to 70% lower than what Americans are being forced to pay today.

Rubatex Neoprene (AXcess News) Washington - A survey released today found that drug prices under the new Medicare drug program will be considerably higher than the prices negotiated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). According to the survey, the median price difference for the 20 drugs most frequently used by seniors is 48.2 percent.

Senior citizens on fixed incomes will be hit particularly hard, as premiums for their Medicare supplement plans and prescription drug costs climb.

Rubatex Pipe The survey, released by the consumer health organization Families USA, found that prices under the new Medicare drug benefit will have a big impact on both the drug costs borne by senior citizens and on American taxpayers. Through premiums, deductibles, and copayments, seniors will bear approximately one-fourth of the new drug program's costs. Taxpayers will pay the remaining three-quarters.

Under the proposed budget, however, more Medicare beneficiaries would have to pay higher premiums for coverage of prescription drugs and doctor services, The New York Times reported Monday. Currently, married couples who earn more than $160, 000 and single people who earn more than $80, 000 have to pay higher Medicare premiums for doctors' services. In his budget proposal, Bush wants a similar surcharge for the new prescription drug benefit, which took effect last year.

Rubatex Pipe Insulation When the Medicare drug benefit was under consideration, the Administration and congressional leaders promised that a program operated through many private plans would provide, through competition, low drug prices. The Families USA survey belies that assertion.

According to Rep. Burton, who has extensively studied drug company lobbying efforts, the cost of the industry influence peddling exceeded $150 million in 2003. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that taxpayers alone will pay roughly $1.8 trillion for prescription drugs over the next 10 years ot including the additional $400+ billion provided in the new Medicare bill. 9

Rubatex 180 "The huge prices paid by seniors and taxpayers could have been avoided if Congress and the President had not caved in to the pressure of the drug lobby," said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. "They prohibited Medicare from bargaining for cheaper prices and, to ensure that this would never change, they delegated the administration of the benefit to private plans, which have far less bargaining clout."

The new Medicare bill is one such policy that will create economic havoc in the US for generations to come. While the federal government estimates that it will cost $400 billion over the next 10 years to pay the prescription drug costs for certain Americans, there is no upper limit to how much the government is obligated to spend. Some estimate that this bill will cost trillions of taxpayer dollars. 2, 3 And because the federal government is already running a $500 billion deficit, the money must be borrowed to pay today inflated drug costs.

Rubatex 180 Fs "As a result, many seniors will be burdened with unaffordable high drug costs, and America's taxpayers will be fleeced."

Rubatex 1800 The survey found that the lowest VA price is much lower than the lowest Medicare prescription drug plan (PDP) price for 19 of the 20 drugs.

Rubatex 320 - For half of the top 20 drugs, the lowest Medicare prescription drug plan price is at least one and one-half times higher than the lowest VA price.

Rubatex 373 - For one-quarter of the top 20 drugs, the lowest Medicare prescription drug plan price is at least twice as high as the lowest VA price.

Rubatex Rubber - For three of the top 20 drugs, the lowest Medicare prescription drug plan price is at least four times grater than the lowest VA price.

Rubatex Tape Among the top seven drugs prescribed for seniors, the annual difference between the lowest VA prices and lowest Medicare drug plan prices are as follows:

Rubatex Closing - Plavix (75 mg., an anti-clotting agent): lowest VA price is $887.16; lowest Medicare plan price is $1,229.64 - a difference of $342.48, or 38.6 percent.

Rubatex Closed Cell Gasketing - Lipitor (10 mg., cholesterol lowering agent): lowest VA price is $497.16; lowest Medicare plan price is $717.84 - a difference of $220.68, or 44.4 percent.

Felpro Gaskets - Fosamax (70 mg., osteoporosis treatment): lowest VA price is $493.32; lowest Medicare plan price is $709.68 - a difference of $216.36, or 43.9 percent.

Poly Products Supplies - Norvasc (5 mg., calcium channel blocker): lowest VA price is $301.68; lowest Medicare plan price is $458.88 - a difference of $157.20, or 52.1 percent.

Poly Hunting Feeders - Protonix (40 mg., gastrointestinal agent): lowest VA price is $253.32; lowest Medicare plan price is $1,080 - a difference of $826.68, or 326.3 percent.

Shoreline 13171 17 Neoprene - Celebrex (200 mg., anti-inflammatory agent): lowest VA price is $619.80; lowest Medicare plan price is $865.08 - a difference of $245.28, or 39.6 percent.

Neoprene Pads - Zocor (20 mg., cholesterol lowering agent): lowest VA price is $167.80; lowest Medicare plan price is $1,323.72 - a difference of $1,155.92, or 688.9 percent.

Neoprene Seat Covers No single Medicare plan offers the lowest price for all 20 drugs compared to its plan competitors. As a result, for seniors who take multiple medicines, the total difference between VA and Medicare plan prices may be much larger than 48 percent.

Rubber Manufacturer For example, a person purchasing a year's supply of the top-five drugs - Plavix, Lipitor, Fosamax, Norvasc, and Protonix - the lowest VA price is $2,432.64. In comparison, the prices (paid partially by Medicare beneficiaries and partially by taxpayers) for the five plans recommended by the government's Web-based "Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder" for a person purchasing those five drugs are:

Industrial Insulated Foam - Humana, Inc.: $4,206 - $1,773.36 (or 73 percent) higher than the lowest VA price

Wholesale Rubber - First Health Premier: $5,010.60 - $2,577.96 (or 106 percent) higher than the lowest VA price

Foam Insulation - Medi-Care First: $4,530.48 - $2,097.84 (or 86 percent) higher than the lowest VA price

Rubber Industry - PacifiCare: $4,561.16 - $2,128.52 (or 87 percent) higher than the lowest VA price

Industrial Petroleum Products - WellCare: $4,348.80 - $1,916.16 (or 79 percent) higher than the lowest VA price

Petroleum Refiner According to the Families USA survey, VA prices are lower for both generic and brand-name drugs:

Petroleum Products - 18 of the 20 most-prescribed medicines for seniors are brand-name drugs. For 17 of those 18 brand-name drugs, the VA price was much lower than Medicare drug plan prices. For those drugs, the median difference between the lowest Medicare plan price and the lowest VA price is 44.1 percent.

Rubatex International - Two of the top 20 drugs are generics. For those drugs, the median difference between the lowest Medicare drug plan and the lowest VA price is 94.5 percent.

Rubatex Msds The Families USA report was based on a comparison of VA prices with the prices in two Medicare drug regions: region 5 (covering the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Delaware) and Region 14 (covering Ohio). Only drugs that were on a Medicare prescription drug plan's formulary - drugs for which the plan would have actively negotiated prices - were included in the analysis. All data were collected during the week of Nov. 14, 2005 (when the new program's enrollment began) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service's "Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder" at http://www.medicare.gov.

For a copy of the report, and for a copy of the prices for each of the 20 drugs in all plans in the two regions, please visit our Web site at http://www.familiesusa.org.