Discounts on Your RX Drugs: Where to Find Lower Prices-And Why Bush's Senior-Discount Plan Could Change Medicare

Pay close attention to the drug-discount cards for seniors just announced by President George W. Bush. At first blush, they sound like a small, stopgap way of cutting the cost of prescription drugs while you're waiting for "real" drug benefits under Medicare. In fact, this could be a test run of how a future, privatized Medicare plan might work.

Bush is proposing a pretty radical business structure for these discount cards. I hate to say so, but it's kinda Clintonesque. If the plan succeeds, it could be used not only for drug benefits but for other privatized Medicare services, too.

For now, the administration will tout these cards only to seniors--more than 10 million of them--who have poor or no insurance coverage for prescription drugs. They could be in your hands by next Jan. 1. When you show the card at your local drugstore or order drugs by phone or Web, you might get 10 percent to 20 …

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Publication information: Article title: Discounts on Your RX Drugs: Where to Find Lower Prices-And Why Bush's Senior-Discount Plan Could Change Medicare. Contributors: Not available. Magazine title: Newsweek. Publication date: August 6, 2001. Page number: 25. © 2009 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.

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