Tennessee Rx spend falls over 66%

The southern US state of Tennessee's TennCare, which adopted Hillary Clinton's 1993 plan for universal health care before escalating costs  led to drastic cutbacks in recent years, has reported a more than  two-thirds drop in prescription drug spending from 2005 to 2008. In  2005, Governor Phil Bresenden (Democrat) introduced a cap on the number  of prescriptions a beneficiary could fill per month to five, of which  two could be branded products.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that TennCare's Rx drug  spending fell from $2.44 billion to $706.0 million in the three-year  period, citing state officials who explained that much of the reduction  was attributable to Medicare reforms. However, like-for-like spending  still declined 40%, they claimed.

Reflecting the inflated TennCare program before Gov Bresenden was  elected on a pledge to control spending, the Novartis Pharmacy Benefit  Report found that, in 2008, Tennessee residents still used about 42%  more prescription drugs than the US average. The Chattanooga Times cited  TennCare's acting pharmacy director, Nicole Woods, who said: "I think we  have appropriate safeguards in place to help protect those who may have  a legitimate medical need."