High drug prices
My blood boiled recently as former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli was grilled by Congress for boosting the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent. While he’s a great example of what’s wrong, he’s not the only one doing it. The pharmaceutical giants are pulling in massive profits at our expense.
As a senior on a fixed income of less than $1,500 a month, I struggle with maintaining my budget with increasing prescription costs. My co-pay for two medications runs from a low of $47 a month for three months to a high of $467 a month for the five months when I’m in the doughnut hole. I now take my medication once a day instead of twice as prescribed to make them last longer.
When I hear politicians talk about cutting entitlements, I know they’re looking to people like me. Of course, I can’t shovel cash into their campaign accounts like Big Pharma can. Let the entitlement cuts begin with the drug companies’ ability to charge whatever they want for the medications people need to live.
The candidate who does that gets my vote.
Judy Putnam, Jupiter
This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "High drug prices."