Lois Capps: “Seniors throughout the area are, we are finding out, paying outrageously high prices for their prescription drugs. Even…”

“Seniors throughout the area are, we are finding out, paying outrageously high prices for their prescription drugs. Even worse, these inflated prices are subsidizing the very discounts that high profit HMOs get for these very same medications. A report we have released gives to the public our study, which uncovers this fact in my Congressional District and gives the reason why some of these costs are so high. There are very startling findings. Seniors in California on the central coast are paying on the average 133 percent more for the 10 drugs most commonly used by seniors. This is 133 percent more than the HMOs are paying at the discounted rates they get for these very same prescriptions. These are drugs like Zocor, which reduce cholesterol, Norvasc for common blood pressure medication, and Relafen, which provides relief from arthritis.”