US insurance companies charging patients for drugs

Fri, 18 Apr 2008

According to American health insurance news this week, insurance companies are increasingly starting to charge those policyholders on the most expensive drugs a percent share of their medications . Standard copayment , it appears, has gone out of the window.

This type of medical insurance cost has only started to appear in the last five years. Known as Tier 4 payments, they require some cancer, arthritis, MS and hep C patients to pay between 20-33% of the total cost of their drugs. This Tier 4 payment systems can cost patients thousands of dollars a month.

The practice was brought to light in the New York Times, who say that drugmakers are charging too much for their products. Insurance companies defend their policies, saying that Tier 4 means that they can keep premiums down for other members.

Senator Obama lent his weight to protest against the payments, calling them ‘troubling’ on several fronts.
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