Pharmacists react to new prescription drug deal

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday touted the administration's plan to lower prescription drug prices for Americans on Medicare.

[DustinPlatt]

I work in opthalmology. No, it's not heart surgery or general health, but if you have to get surgery on your eyes.. let me break it down.

You need cataract surgery:

1. If it's one eye, with insurance, with the most basic IOL, roughly $2, 000-$3, 500. If you're doing both eyes, you'd probably spend around $5, 000-$7, 000 on just the intraocular lenses.
If you want the multi-focal intraocular lenses, for both eyes, I'd say average $7, 000-$9, 500.

2. You have to pay for specific eye drops. Sometimes, the surgeons will give you the bottles for free because they get a ridiculous deal on them because they do 3, 000 surgeries, if not more, a year. If you have to pay out of pocket for the FIRST drops before surgery, you'll pay $45-$200. You'll finish the bottle. Then you need 3 Postop visits with the doctor. Each visit is considered medically necessary, so out of pocket cost is not much. The drops, however, AFTER surgery are around $400~ because they are a combination drop, and you have to take that for a whole month. So if you get 2 eyes done, expect paying $55-$450~ just on drops after the surgery and $45-$200 before the surgery.

That's just cataracts. The most common surgery. Wait until you get diabetic retinopathy or glaucoma.

It is absolutely insane. But don't worry. I work with 13 ophthalmologists, and they all make a MINIMUM of $377k a year (I've done their payroll/salary)

They will bill your insurance company for $200, 000+ for common procedures, and insurance companies will reimburse the ophthalmologist around $900-$1200 for each eye for the cataract surgery I talked about, plus most of what you pay.



Sorry. I'm venting. I'm sitting here making $29/hour and just looking at these doctors' salaries and wanting to quit.

[roxiesimikns]

It doesnt go into effect untill january 26! Goodluck till then! 😂

[lisanichols-sheppard]

Same old same old. Yall been in the office for almost 3.5 years. Too late... Blacks for Trump

[donbartholomew]

So why wasn't this done during the Trump Administration

[joeschmoe]

Ok so what is this really costing Americans? Nothing is free. Must be taking the money from you somewhere else.

[margiestephens]

My question is ::: this was promised almost 4y ago ??? It’s HYPE to pull your vote folks

[sanibel]

Biden may think he beat Big Pharma, but thats just what he was told to say. CBS as well. Cheers.

[dcx]

Seniors need help TODAY, not two years from now! Heard about this a while ago I guess they are rehashing it since election.

[paulah]

Smoke and mirrors. Watch our Medicare premiums rise and advantage premiums rise, with more denials from insurance companies for appropriate care and medications.

[AstroTurf]

And the insurance will still ultimately deny you lifesaving treatment

[dag]

Savings of $8 Billion of savings per year eventually and only $1.5 Billion in out of pocket cost for the first year and yet we have given Ukraine $55.4 Billion in aid over the last two years. Priorities?

[bonitaburroughs]

When they did this with insulin, my moms medicare D copay went from $20/mo to $35/mo. Tell me again how it saved her money?

[Christian-jxnx]

Nothing will change it’s just election time. More hype

[sandyjuntunen]

Politicians in an election year, it's so wonderful, look what we did for you! Price controls! A few will be cheaper. The rest? Going WAY up! They can't lose money.

[TheAlchemist]

The old Mark book from 1899 big pharmacy is a big business and you’re invested. They predict your health your future everything and you fall for it.

[TruthMatters]

Research the insurers dropping the drug coverage in 2025 for those on medicaid/medicaid

[XSpik]

He didn't seem to care his first 3 years that we were paying those prices, now he decides to do something in an election year. They're both absolutely pathetic.

[jakeragsdale]

I was with Merck when they launched Januvia. It loses patent protection in 2026, so the price would have come down massively regardless. Sometimes the first generic maker buys 6 months of exclusivity but not sure if this bill really does anything about that. Eliquis will will probably have generic competition in 2026 too without any further government intervention. I’m not sure what this really does to help.

[U-kj]

So now what do they expect my vote? Sorry Kamala your clown show won't get my vote no matter how much pandering you do.

[Jackiedylan]

Insurance will change tier and increase costs, it will never be reduced!