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The recent fiscal slump has affected loads of american’s power to pay for their prescription drugs. Help with prescription medicine is available. Some prescription medicine companies are responding with improved medicine benefit. Merck, which produces Singulair for asthma, Januvia for diabetes and Fosamax for osteoporosis, increased the amount of total yearly income a family can earn and yet be eligible for free of charge prescription medicine in March. Patients making less than $43,000 and families of four making lower than $88,000 at present can become certified for help with medication. Merck says it has helped 1.6  million patients with $1.6  billion of prescription drugs over the last seven years. Help for prescription medicine is available from other companies also.

“We are committed to helping patients, and that commitment is evident in the $140 million of financial assistance we provided in 2008,” representative Shannon Altimari from drug producer Biogen states. Biogen Idec provides aid for prescription Avonex and Tysabri which is used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Pfizer announced a program earlier this year called Maintain that provides complimentary prescription medicine to laid off Americans who could do with prescription drug aid. Maintain is just one of quite a lot of patient assistance programs that the company administers.

AstraZeneca just announced that it was changing its prescription medicine assistance program to grant assistance sooner to a number of people. The company’s plan provides free medicine or low-cost prescription medication to uninsured, low-income people. AstraZeneca said in a statement that it “would immediately extend assistance to qualifying patients who have lost their jobs, had their incomes reduced or had a change in marital status or family size”. The manufacturer said these types of patients had been having troubles qualifying for prescription medicine as their income tax returns showed exceedingly high an income. Qualifying people can at the present join up by providing certification of their current wages and family size, AstraZeneca said.

Bill Lewis is a patient that has experienced such troubles. The 44 -year-old cook was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2000 . His earnings from social security and a small disability policy just about covers his mortgage, medical bills, and other living expenses. “I have tried all sorts of things to see if I can obtain prescription drug assistance,” he claims. He called the prescription medicine companies, Social Security, and his doctor’s staff. He has moreover followed a number of leads on the Internet and ultimately found a company that would administer all of the paperwork for him.

His prescription medicine cost over $275  a month and his health care costs are more than $350  per month. “There were times when I have had to pass over taking my prescription drugs for a day or two,” he admits. He is not sure what the future holds for him but at least at the present he is getting the assistance with medication that he desires.

Tags: free medicine, help with prescriptions, pap, prescription assistance, prescription help, rx help

Saturday, September 5th, 2009 • Planning