Medicare Drug Discount Saves Elderly $1.5 Billion, U.S. Says
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President Barack Obama’s administration says the health-care overhaul he championed has this year saved Medicare recipients an average of $569 a person in drug costs.
About 2.65 million people ages 65 and older have spent about $1.5 billion less on prescription drugs under a discount program on medicines created by the law signed in March 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said today in a statement. About 24 million beneficiaries in Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly and disabled, also had taken advantage of the law’s requirement for free preventive care, such as an annual checkup, during the first 11 months of the year, the agency said.