Statement attributable to:
Warren A. Jones, M.D.
President, AAFP
AAFP Statement: Prescription Drug Card
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
As president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, I applaud the efforts of the drug companies who have joined together to make prescription drugs more affordable for low-income senior citizens. We hope this is part of the evolution of a system that will ultimately lead to a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Every day, the 93,500 members of the AAFP see elderly patients who cannot afford the drugs they are prescribed. Too often, we treat patients whose health suffers because they are taking half doses to cut costs, choosing between food and medicines or simply do not have the money to fill their prescriptions at all.
Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis are the leaders in what I hope becomes a trend — an increase in the health and well-being of our senior citizens.
The Together Rx Card is revolutionary because it brings together several companies offering discounts on more than 130 common drugs. It is encouraging to see pharmaceutical companies working together to develop programs that are simple for patients and for family physicians to use in the office setting and we hope this continues.
The first individual drug discount programs, offered by Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer helped lay the groundwork for this next step. We anxiously await a future in which America’s low-income seniors can rely on Medicare for all their health-related needs.
Every day, the 93,500 members of the AAFP see elderly patients who cannot afford the drugs they are prescribed. Too often, we treat patients whose health suffers because they are taking half doses to cut costs, choosing between food and medicines or simply do not have the money to fill their prescriptions at all.
Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis are the leaders in what I hope becomes a trend — an increase in the health and well-being of our senior citizens.
The Together Rx Card is revolutionary because it brings together several companies offering discounts on more than 130 common drugs. It is encouraging to see pharmaceutical companies working together to develop programs that are simple for patients and for family physicians to use in the office setting and we hope this continues.
The first individual drug discount programs, offered by Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer helped lay the groundwork for this next step. We anxiously await a future in which America’s low-income seniors can rely on Medicare for all their health-related needs.
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Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.
Nearly one in four of all office visits are made to family physicians. That is 215 million office visits each year – nearly 48 million more than the next medical specialty. Today, family physicians provide the majority of care for America’s underserved and rural populations.
In the increasingly fragmented world of health care where many medical specialties limit their practice to a particular organ, disease, age or sex, family physicians are dedicated to treating the whole person across the full spectrum of ages. Family medicine’s cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.
To learn more about the American Academy of Family Physicians and about the specialty of family medicine, please visit www.aafp.org.
For more information about the AAFP's positions on issues and clinical care and downloadable multi-media on family medicine and health care, visit the AAFP Media Center.
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