The existing economic decline has affected lots of patient’s power to pay for their medicine. Help with prescription medicine is available. Some prescription companies are responding with enhanced prescription drug aid. Merck, which manufacturers Singulair for asthma, Januvia for diabetes and Fosamax for osteoporosis, increased the amount of total annual income a household can take home and still meet the criteria for free prescription medicine in March. People making lower than $43,000 and families of four making less than $88,000 at present can meet the criteria for assistance with prescription medicine. Merck says it has helped 1.9  million patients with $1.  billion of prescription drugs over the last seven years. Help for prescription medicine is available from other companies also.

“We are committed to helping patients, and that commitment is evident in the $140 million of financial assistance we provided in 2008,” representative Shannon Altimari from drug manufacturer Biogen states. Biogen Idec offers assistance for prescription medicine Avonex and Tysabri which is used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Pfizer announced a program previously this year called Maintain that provides free prescriptions to laid off individuals who require prescription medication help. Maintain is just one of more than a few patient assistance programs that the manufacturer administers.

AstraZeneca just announced that it was changing its prescription medicine assistance program to supply help quicker to selected individuals. The company’s plan provides free prescription drugs or low-cost medicine to uninsured, low-income individuals. AstraZeneca said in a announcement that it “would immediately extend assistance to qualifying patients who have lost their jobs, had their incomes reduced or had a change in marital status or family size”. The manufacturer said these types of patients had been having problems qualifying for prescription medication for the reason that their tax returns showed excessively high an income. Qualifying Americans can immediately sign up by providing documentation of their current pay and household size, AstraZeneca said.

Eddie Wilson is a patient that has experienced such problems. The 40 -year-old laborer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2002 . His earnings from social security and a little disability policy scarcely covers his mortgage, health bills, and other living expenses. “I have tried all sorts of things to see if I can acquire prescription medication help,” he states. He called the medicine companies, Social Security, and his healthcare provider’s office. He has moreover followed more than a few leads on the Internet and finally found a company that would deal with all of the paperwork for him.

His drug cost over $350  a month and his health care costs are more than $400  per month. “There were times when I have had to miss out taking my prescription drugs for a day or two,” he admits. He is not sure what the future holds for him but at least at this time he is getting the aid with prescription drugs that he wants.