As a member of the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature, which advises the
state government on issues important to seniors, Ruth Bowling has
thought a lot about prescription drug prices.
"I'm more concerned about other people than myself," said Ms. Bowling,
who lives in Richardson and prefers not to give her age. "I think it's a
crime that people get to the age where they've saved money all their
lives and they have to spend it all on drugs."
She takes three prescriptions regularly, amounting to about $150 a
month. She already has a senior discount card that saves her about 15
percent off the regular cost but admits she hasn't shopped around very
much.
"I like having a pharmacy near my house, and I wouldn't buy online," Ms.
Bowling said. "I'm not about to type all that personal information into
my computer."
But a letter that Medicare sent to tell seniors about the new discount
card got her interested. She phoned several pharmacies and discount
stores to check prices, then sat down at the computer to check out
medicare.gov.
It didn't go well. Ms. Bowling soon grew impatient with screen after
screen of text. When she entered one of her three medications, the Web
page responded, "Your selected drug was not found."
In subsequent searches, the same medication did turn up. But this time,
the list of discount programs evaluated only two of her three drugs.
"I don't know what this is," she said. "This is not very clear."
Clicking to a list of nearby pharmacies produced the dreaded "This page
cannot be displayed."
Ms. Bowling had seen enough. "I haven't learned anything," she said.
"This is crazy. I don't think most seniors will be able to do this."
She then spent a couple of days trying to call Medicare's toll-free
phone line but couldn't get through.
The good news is that in calling around to other pharmacies, she found
prices lower than she's paying now, which has left her determined to do
better.
"I don't know if I'm going to get a card or not," Ms. Bowling said. "But
I'm determined to find out exactly what's going on."
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