Help you with your prescription drugs? Not so much...

I lost my medical insurance at the end of July, and I've been trying to get along without it since then. Luckily, most of my medications are either generics or over-the-counter, so I can take advantage of low-priced prescription drug programs (I use Walgreens's program, but Walmart, Target and others have similar services.) However, two of my medications are still under patent in the U.S. and quite expensive, so rather than take my chances with an Internet drugstore, I decided to investigate the programs that are available from pharmaceutical companies.

It turns out that almost every major company has its own program, but each one has its own limits and requirements. For example, Eli Lilly, the company that's buying ImClone for $6.5 billion, has a program that provides its medications free, but my income would have to be near the poverty line. I can't file for the program alone--my doctor has to fill in a good deal of information--and Lilly requires me to include the front page of my 2007 Federal Income Taxes, along with paystubs or other evidence of my income. (I thought that tax filings were supposed to remain private.) The drugs will be delivered to my doctor, not to me or to my pharmacy, and I have to get them from the doctor. And, by the way, it'll take four weeks for Lilly to process the paperwork, and I'll have to go through the entire process again for each refill.

There's another option, Together Rx Access, which provides a discount of 25% to 40% on one of the two drugs, but doesn't cover the other one at all. After looking at the options, I've decided to go without either medication for now. If we really want to help people who can't afford their prescriptions, the Federal Government should simply make it legal for U.S. citizens to import small quantities of generic versions of expensive drugs from international sources for their own use. I'm sick of hearing drug companies point to their need to be compensated for their R&D expenses, when the major companies are incredibly profitable. In no other industry is there an expectation of compensation for failed research. If Intel goes the wrong direction with a chip design or fabrication technology, it sucks up the loss and moves forward. Are Lilly, Glaxo, or Merck really all that different?