Older Americans shelled out an average of $1,378 per person on prescription medications last year, an expense that is rising 18.5% annually.
At that rate, seniors will need plenty of advice on managing medication use under a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
The study conducted for RxHealthValue by Brandeis University examined drug usage and costs using prescription claims data provided by AdvancePCS, one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefits managers. The data represent drugs dispensed to more than 1 million people continually enrolled in an insurance program over a 3-year period.
More than 12% of Americans over age 65 are consuming eight or more different drugs, up from 8% just 3 years ago.
Seniors are also spending significantly more per person than younger Americans.
Per capita drug expenditures for people under 65 are increasing at an annual rate of 15.6% -- almost three percentage points lower than the rate of increase for the over-65 crowd.
Congressional Briefing by RxHealthValue Coalition July 30, 2001
This is an excellent example of what the paradigm in this country has focused on and, for the most part, been able to implement successfully.
Advances in health care are, in fact, keeping us alive far longer, but this is primarily done by ignoring the true causes of disease and substituting expensive band-aids that keep us unnecessarily dependent on the drug companies.
The average elderly American is spending more than $100 per month on drugs. This is just plain absurd.
Something is dreadfully wrong here and that is really my passion - to help repair the system - by facilitating a process whereby information can be transferred to people to provide them with practical inexpensive options.
The $100 a month that people are now spending in drugs does NOT need to be transferred over to supplements. Although supplements are sometimes helpful, they are also only band-aids.
The key is to consume healthy foods and follow the healthy eating plan so your body can start the healing process and allow you to slowly and carefully, with professional supervision, successfully wean off these expensive medications.
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