Until you've been there, or until you've seen your parents' prescription bills, you have no idea just how big a bite medicine can take out of the typical senior's monthly budget. It's a paradox. Medical science makes one discovery after another extending our lifespans, but with older age comes the need for more and more medicines to make those added years tolerable. We have seen an explosion of new drugs to treat arthritis, heart disease, mental illness and other ailments that have helped Americans live longer, healthier lives. Seniors, on average, spend about 18 percent of their income on health care, with a large chunk of that going to prescription drugs.
Medicines make up the second-largest category of expenses, after housing.
It is not unusual for Medicare recipients to face a choice between drugs and food. Basic Medicare coverage does not include coverage for outpatient prescription drugs. That coverage may not amount to a hill of pills, though. Medicare HMOs typically cover prescriptions, but some insurers have fled the Medicare market because they claim to have made little profit in it. That's an increase from 5.8 percent to 7.2 percent of total health care costs.