Prescription drugs are the best value in health care, costing only 10 cents of every health care dollar. Unfortunately, the uninsured or even people with insurance have to pay full price or high co-payments out of their own pocket. The economic downturn has caused many Americans to skip preventive health services and not fill their prescriptions.
The current effort to make affordable, quality health care accessible to all Americans offers new hope at the pharmacy counter. America's drug makers' offer to give 50 percent discounts to people in Medicare's "doughnut hole" as a part of comprehensive reform is even more encouraging.
Senator Mikulski has become the Senate's voice on improving health quality through better medication use. She has supported helping vulnerable patients in Medicare and Medicaid work with a pharmacist to manage their medicines, avoid dangerous side effects and fight chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma. She should be commended not only for these efforts but for her efforts to protect patients from dangerous imported drugs.
