There are a number of people, myself included, who are a bit cynical about the current drug discount plans. They do offer a better deal for a lot of Medicare recipients, especially the ones like the Pfizer plan that can cut the cost to $15 per month per medication. Many of the companies also have indigent programs that provide some medications for free for very low income recipients. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the plans were (IMO) mostly started as an effort to decrease the political pressure behind Medicare prescription coverage. Now that we have Medicare prescription coverage (of sorts) there will be less incentive to continue the plans.

Even the indigent plans are a mixed bag. It is perfectly clear that many of the indigent drug programs are tied more to marketing efforts than they are to delivery of medications. In at least some cases the requests have to be vetted by the local sales force rather than processed strictly on their apparent merits, although I think there is less of that than there used to be. Or perhaps it is just less obvious. Some of the companies change the rules and the program forms change so frequently that a cynical person (certainly not me! <cough&gtWink might conclude that the companies are trying to prevent patient advocates from getting too efficient at navigating the application process.

If the industry really wanted to create an effective, efficient system for helping the very poor obtain medication they could undoubtedly do so. I am convinced, however, that for many of the companies the goal is to appear to be helping the needy while minimizing the actual amount of product that is distributed. It may be an effective marketing tactic but it is more than a bit disingenuous IMO.