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July 26, 2016

Pricey drugs overwhelm Medicare Part D

  • The cost of Medicare's “catastrophic” prescription coverage jumped by 85 percent in three years.
    • By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
    Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — A safeguard for Medicare beneficiaries has become a way for drugmakers to get paid billions of dollars for pricey medications at taxpayer expense, government numbers show.

    The cost of Medicare's “catastrophic” prescription coverage jumped by 85 percent in three years, from $27.7 billion in 2013 to $51.3 billion in 2015, according to the program's number-crunching Office of the Actuary.


     
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