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Drug Policy Monitor examines the value of pharmaceuticals within America’s health care system. This newsletter looks at a variety of topics including drug access and reimbursement in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Ensuring access to medicines can help contain Medicare spending growth.

Ensuring that patients have access to appropriate new medicines can help to contain overall Medicare spending.

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July 26, 2005

Medicaid cuts disproportionately affect America’s Hispanic/Latino populations.

Less than half of America’s Hispanic/Latino populations have private health insurance. In 2004, one third of Hispanic or Latino Americans lacked any health insurance compared to 10 percent of whites and 16 percent of blacks. Hispanic or Latino Americans are also twice as likely as whites to rely on Medicaid for health insurance benefits. Consequently America’s Hispanic/Latino populations are disproportionately impacted when benefits offered through Medicaid programs are eliminated, reduced or restricted.

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March 29, 2005

Efforts to make pharmaceutical industry “profits” the scapegoat for rising health costs ignore economic reality.

A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals that 80 percent of respondents believe that prescription drugs have a positive impact on the lives of Americans, yet nearly 60 percent also believe that prescription drugs increase overall health costs and 24 percent believe that drug company profits are the most important factor in rising health care costs.