Medicare Part D participants ask drug companies for help:
"MS patient Jeanine Piscotti said Friday that she doesn't know whether she will be able to afford the Avonex injections that used to cost her about $8 per month and helped ease her symptoms of MS. Under the new Medicare Part D program, the drug could cost Piscotti, 54, about $290 per month.

Laura Cohan, 40, of Steger said the prospect of paying more than $4,000 per year for Copaxone with Part D will put the drug out of reach for her. She doesn't look forward to the inevitable MS attacks she expects to face - attacks that could allow the degenerative disease to progress faster.

Roxanne Metz of rural Jacksonville at one point feared losing the help she received to afford the anti-MS drug Betaseron.....

The gap in coverage requires Part D enrollees to pay the full price of drugs after the first $2,250 expended; coverage kicks back in when their drug expenses exceed $5,100.

As a result, many MS patients who have been dropped from assistance programs that charge $120 to $600 per year for medicine will have to pay $3,600 to $5,000 per year for their medicine through Part D, according to the MS Society.....[more]"