OT - Frustration at our medical system.
I wonder what it will take for people to consider single payer and pharmaceutical price negotiation. These last three weeks have been an eye opener, in particular for somebody who does not have insurance, even in blue Massachusetts.
My oldest son is going to grad school in France. He takes pills everyday for a genetic condition. Nothing fancy, a pill for low thyroid hormones and a pill that is basically an overdosed Vitamin D pill. Those are pills that have been on the market for years (he is 23 and has been taking these meds since he was 3, and they were already there for years then).
Because he goes to France and he needs the time to find an endocrinologist that will give him a prescription for these drugs, he wants to go there with a 3 months supply (he wont be in his final location until mid September). His college insurance expired at the end of August and he was not able to get his prescription done before that (he would have paid a $30 copay with that).
So, we are shopping for the best price for these medicines, nothing fancy or new. We are asking for generic brands, because he is on a budget and wants to spend the least he can. I was amazed at the price difference between the pharmacies we visited (all big chains). CVS was offering $260, or about $1.50 a pill. Walgreen's was offering $210, or about $1.15 a pill.
I normally do not shop at Walmart, as I have strong objection to their business model, but we were struck that both pharmacists told us we would be better off going there. I pushed my scruples aside and we went and asked. I wanted to yell, when the pharmacist told us that we could have the pills for $110. Now, I can understand the difference between CVS and Walgreen's. But how is it possible for Walmart to sell at half price compared to the other ones. I understand that they use it in part as a lost leader to get people to their stores, but even then, what does it tell us about the margin that CVS and Walgreen's impose to uninsured people (because of course insurance companies pay a lot less than that).
What does it tell us as a society when companies impose huge surtaxes to the poorest among us. May be Democrats should do something (or at least propose to do something). I know they think they did something, but there will still be a bunch of people who cannot afford insurance and will be exempted under the hardship insurance, and then there are all these people who could get Medicaid in states that will implement the extension, but not in red states who will not.
BTW, if my son stayed in the US and did not find a job or did not go to grad school, he would have right to an insurance, but, because he is young, it would be an Health Safety Net where the only way to see a doctor or get medicine would be to go to the emergency room and to the hospital pharmacy, and he is not eligible to be on our insurance because we are not on a private insurance, but on the Commonwealth Care.
Sigh... So, my frustration is at it highest, particularly after our insurance told us that we could not take our youngest to a doctor where we were vacationing, but had to take him to the emergency room. You wonder why people wait so long in the emergency room, if they have to deal with bad colds and epidemics of flu.
= new reply since forum marked as read
