New York Times Letters to the Editor Address Medicare Part D ‘Doughnut Hole’

The New York Times on Sunday published two letters to the editor regarding the Medicare "doughnut hole." Summaries appear below.

• Herbert Bengelsdorf: "There are solutions" to the gap in coverage in the Medicare prescription drug benefit that a recent Times editorial addressed, Bengelsdorf, a retired clinical director of psychiatry at the Westchester Medical Center, writes in a Times letter to the editor. The editorial stated that "there is no easy solution short of increasing federal spending or finding a way to drive down the cost of drugs." Bengelsdorf suggests "repealing the provision that prevents providers from negotiating drug prices" or "a government-sponsored agency to buy drugs at discounted prices and sell them at cost to beneficiaries." He concludes that while there are fixes for the doughnut hole, "there has been, so far, no easy solution to the power of the pharmaceutical industry and the insurers" (Bengelsdorf, New York Times, 9/7).
  
  
• Gail Shearer: While Medicare beneficiaries wait for the next administration to address the doughnut hole in coverage, they can "reduce their chances of falling into that coverage chasm" by taking "the lowest-cost drugs that meet their medical needs," Shearer, director of health policy at the Washington Office of Consumers Union and director of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, writes in a Times letter to the editor. She concludes, "People should raise the issue of drug prices with their doctors to make sure they get prescriptions for medicines they can afford" (Shearer, New York Times, 9/7).