Pres Bush's Medicare discount card plan "will not curb skyrocketing Rx

US President George W Bush's newly-announced Medicare-EndorsedPrescription Drug Discount Program (see also page 13) is the wrong prescription to curb increasing drug prices for seniors and offers false hope for Medicare recipients, according to the Pharmacy Benefits All Coalition, which represents all aspects of community pharmacy.

State-based prescription discount programs for seniors have been proven not to work, according to Craig Fuller, president and chief executive of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which is a member of the coalition, and he added that the same "fallacies" which have been observed with state programs are likely to occur with a national discount card program. "We need a pharmacy benefit that addresses the real problem, the rising cost of prescription drugs," he said.

However, in his announcement of the plan at a Rose Garden ceremony on July 12, Pres Bush had said that the new drug discount program "combines the purchasing clout of millions of seniors to negotiate lower prices than under the current system."