Medicare safeguard overwhelmed by pricey drugs

WASHINGTON (AP) — New government numbers show that a financial safeguard for Medicare beneficiaries has become a way for pharmaceuticals to get billions of dollars for pricey medications at taxpayer expense. The cost of Medicare’s “catastrophic” prescription coverage jumped by 85 percent in three years, from $27.7 billion in 2013 to $51.3 billion in 2015.…