Generic v. Name Brand

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/cheap-vs-expensive-drugs/?ref=business

A.k.a cheap v. expensive.

In a paper published recently, it has been discovered that there is a vast difference in the amount of money spent on Medicare Part D (the coverage of prescription drugs) by geographic location.  Texas, and each coast consistently spent more even when controlled for income across three different drug types: antidepressants, statins, and ARBs/ ACEIs.  While no one is entirely sure why this is unique to these areas, the cause of the spending differences has been attributed to the use of name brand drugs instead of generics.  This may be a result of incentives for doctors that encourage them to prescribe the name brand.  The problem is in how much mor ename brands cost than generic drugs.  As medicare is financed by taxpayer dollars, this is costing them more.  The beneficiaries have an interest in buying generic drugs:  their copayment is much higher for the name brand version, meaning it is more likely for seniors to refill and take their prescriptions if they cost less. In terms of health, the drug companies claim that the name brand drugs have better results, although research has proven that generics and name brands do roughly the same.

I chose this article because I was curious about it.  I have previously read about a psychology experiment in which the participants were told how much the drug they were taking cost (all took the same medicine) and the participants who thought the medicine was more expensive, recovered more than the others.  But stress also causes health problems and stressing about money to pay for your medications is not going to make you any better.  And yay for less government waste.