DECATUR - Learning that her prescription drug plan no longer covers the medicine she needs, a senior citizen from Central Illinois pays full price, then must seek help to buy food that month.

A Chicago-area pharmacist dispenses four prescriptions that cost about $1,000 and tallies his profit on the entire transaction at 91 cents.

These are among the stories about the first six weeks of prescription drug coverage under Medicare.

They were shared Saturday during a visit by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to Victory Pharmacy to discuss his proposed remedy.

The Medicare Drug Honest Pricing Act, legislation he introduced in the Senate on Wednesday, would give Medicare plan beneficiaries the option of choosing a different plan if their plan increases drug prices by more than 10 percent or if their plan changes which drugs are covered.

Currently, the senator said, beneficiaries are locked into the drug plan they choose for one year while plans can change their prices and drugs covered at any time.

"This law was written by the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies. They wanted to make sure at the end of the day, they would do well," Durbin said. "Unfortunately, at the end of the day, senior citizens are not doing as well as they should."

He presented information about two of the dozens of plans available in Illinois - HealthSpring and Blue Medicare Rx-Standard - showing major change over time in the cost of the medications senior citizens most commonly take.

Referring to HealthSpring, Durbin said, "If you called on Nov. 17, they'd say your drugs are going to cost $3,900, but if you called them just a month later, the price of those drugs are up to $5,100."

Wole Adeoye, owner of Victory Pharmacy, said drug and insurance companies pretty much dictate what he can charge and in many cases force him to operate at a loss.

"If this continues, it will be very, very difficult for pharmacies to stay open," Adeoye said.

Also speaking during Durbin's appearance were J. Michael Patton, executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, and Katie Coombes, a community organizer with Champaign County Health Care Consumers.

Both expressed support for Durbin in his attempt to reform Medicare's prescription drug coverage.

"We have pharmacists dispensing medication free of charge in the hopes they will get paid by someone in the future," Patton said. "Profits for these plans are all that's been safeguarded by this program."

Coombes said Medicare's so-called drug benefit is not a benefit at all as currently written.

"People are just walking out of drugstores without their prescriptions, and they're crying," she said.

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@;herald-review.com or 421-7978.