Thursday, May 18, 2006
Am I drug (UHC) dependent or what?
As president of Local 7 of the Newspaper Guild years ago, I used to tell members I would rather improve benefits than salaries because salaries depreciatate while benefits appreciate. Just to say “I told you so” I want you to know how drug-dependent I am on United Healthcare because I am one of the lucky ones who retired at the right time to enjoy benefits of prescriptions at $2 each. I believe the health insurer now gets a subsidy from the government for providing this service so at this moment at least I am better off not to apply for Medicare D. United Healthcare for some reason this month sent a list of what it paid for drugs for my wife and me. The total was $1,083.91 and I paid $34 for 17 prescriptions.. Most expensive drugs were $177 for Celebrex for Helen for arthritis and $172.80 for Actos for me for diabetes. Least expensive were $4.44 for Lasix (water pill) for me and $3.16 for a similar pill for Helen. Cost of Zocor for cholesterol was $139.27 for me and $76.17 for Evista for Helen. Blood pressure medicine for me was costly at $70.28 for Diovan and $63.40 for Novasc. Helen’s Vasotec for blood pressure was $53.25 and that is not the complete list. If all this is too boring for you, take two aspirin (if you can afford it) and e-mail me in the morning.
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You deserve the "I told you so," Harry. The $2 prescription co-pay is the most valuable benefit the Guild has ever negotiated. But younger workers want more dollars today, and don't see into the future when it will be their turn to need prescriptions.
I think listing what UHC-KR pays for prescriptions is a wise PR move. With item after item showing that UHC pays $0.00 for doctor visits, surgery and other things, I suspect that UHC/KR has been catching flak for not paying till we run up $2,000 in out-of-pocket per year. This is designed to try to offset that criticism. Of course, once the company that buys the BJ gets into the act, it's tough to tell what, if any, prescription coverage we'll have.
In my case, my accupril, plendil and hytrin (high blood pressure) cost UHC/KR $164.86 a month. That's nowhere near Harry's costs, but it does come to $1,978.32 per year.
"Fringe" benefits, my eye! For retirees, these benefits far outweigh the value of a few dollars of pay raise and even the pension amount, which pales next to my SS check because SS has an inflation adjustment and the BJ pension does not.
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