Promise of lower costs for drugs for some Medicare recipients

The pharmaceutical industry promised to spend $80 billion toward "improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare" yesterday.

....drug companies would pay half of the cost of brand-name drugs for seniors in the so-called doughnut hole — a gap in coverage that is a feature of many of the plans providing prescription coverage under Medicare. Other officials said wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would not receive the same break, but there was no mention of that in the statement.

In addition, the entire cost of the drug would count toward a patient's out-of-pocket costs, meaning their insurance coverage would cover more of their expenses than otherwise.
via msnbc.msn.com