Expensive specialty drugs are forcing seniors to make hard choices
Lee Whitcraft
Diane and Lee Whitcraft of Webster  Wis. Diane has multiple sclerosis and is forgoing medication because of its cost under her Medicare prescription drug plan. (Courtesy of Diane Whitcraft)
 Whitcraft  took  her  last dose of Betaseron on January 5. So far   she  hasn't had another attack  but  she  knows the threat is always there.  She  said  she  wouldn't have made the same decision to stop the drug if  she  were younger  and  she  wrestled with what to do.
This summer   she  did something  she  thinks  she  should have done a long time ago.  She  wrote a letter to the chief executive of Bayer  the company that makes the drug.
But  Whitcraft  still doesn't understand why  her  drug  which launched with a list price of about $11 500 more than two decades ago  costs so much today â a question  she  raised in  her  letter.
âIt wasnât filled with anger or anything; I just told him that I had quit the drug  and why. And I suggested someone must be very greedy â  she  said. âIt's so wrong and so unfair â a drug that was marketed for the first time in 1993 . . . Why did the cost go up so much here?â
 Whitcraft  said  she  got a phone call from the company offering the drug at a discounted rate  months after  she  had come to the difficult decision to stop taking it.  She  wondered  if the company could offer  her  a discount on an individual basis  why they couldn't just lower the price for everyone.
Diane and  [TGT]  of Webster  Wis. Diane has multiple sclerosis and is forgoing medication because of its cost under her Medicare prescription drug plan. (Courtesy of Diane Whitcraft)
 Whitcraft  took  her  last dose of Betaseron on January 5. So far   she  hasn't had another attack  but  she  knows the threat is always there.  She  said  she  wouldn't have made the same decision to stop the drug if  she  were younger  and  she  wrestled with what to do.
This summer   she  did something  she  thinks  she  should have done a long time ago.  She  wrote a letter to the chief executive of Bayer  the company that makes the drug.
But  Whitcraft  still doesn't understand why  her  drug  which launched with a list price of about $11 500 more than two decades ago  costs so much today â a question  she  raised in  her  letter.
âIt wasnât filled with anger or anything; I just told him that I had quit the drug  and why. And I suggested someone must be very greedy â  she  said. âIt's so wrong and so unfair â a drug that was marketed for the first time in 1993 . . . Why did the cost go up so much here?â
 Whitcraft  said  she  got a phone call from the company offering the drug at a discounted rate  months after  she  had come to the difficult decision to stop taking it.  She  wondered  if the company could offer  her  a discount on an individual basis  why they couldn't just lower the price for everyone.