"Hubbell’s research shows the administration’s plan has to do with cost and reducing drug overuse. DHHS cites a 2008 actuarial study stating that the six protected classes accounted for 17 to 33 percent of drug spending.
“Apparently money trumps well-informed, accepted and successful medical care even if it undermines ‘a key protection for some of the sickest, most vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries,’” he writes. “The administration’s other rationale is reduction of overuse. When it comes to anti-rejection drugs, for example, it’s hard to see the logic. Such medications limit one’s immune system; the higher the dosage, the more unlikely one’s system can combat other diseases. Trust me, no transplant patient wants to take more anti-rejection medication than absolutely necessary. And we already have a wide variety of safeguards, including criminal penalties, to protect against the over-prescribing or abuse of anti-psychotic drugs. To deny coverage for drugs like Wellbutrin and Prozac to treat depression in the elderly, merely to prevent a potential for abuse, makes no medical or practical sense at all.”"
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