Total Bankruptcy

Wal-Mart began offering $4 prescription drugs to consumers in Kentucky and 10 other states yesterday.  The price applies to a 30 day supply of 143 different drugs.  While this may sound like great news for people with large medical expenses on the brink of filing a Kentucky bankruptcy, it only applies to less than 1% of all the prescription drugs on the market in the U.S. 

The government is prohibited from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices on any of over 11,000 drugs currently on the market including 8700 generic versions.  This restriction began when the new Medicare prescription drug plan went into effect in January 2006 affecting 44 million Americans.  The new congress plans to improve the Medicare plan by enabling the government the ability to negotiate prescription drug rates.  Until then, Wal-Mart may help to delay some Kentucky bankruptcy filings for those people who were previously financially overburdened by the cost of their prescriptions.