The Luvly Laura suffers from three debilitating chronic maladies, and that's the total actual cost of her meds AFTER the mail-in pharmacy's bulk discount - it costs WAY more if you don't have insurance.
But I digess. Let us return to the Luvly Laura. She has MS, she has hypertension (high blood pressure), and she has chronic back pain - really, really, REALLY serious back pain (she's had two fusions). Throw in a half dozen milder illnesses (ADD, OCD, Turette's syndrome, f'r instance), and you have the makings of a finely crafted bankruptcy.
If you wonder why we keep yammering about the cost of healthcare in general, and drugs in particular, it's this. I'm 66 years old, and I still work, o I have insurance. Tens of thousands of my peers have retired, or been forced into it, with their promised health care intact. What do you think happens when the company for which they worked s no longer able to pay its share of the premiums? Got it in one... no insurance for my peers. Is it likely to happen to me? Actually, no... but it IS possible. Then what? I'm stuck with the Republican-brokered medication plan.
Poor folks and old folks trying to figure out whether to eat or buy their medicine is real. And when you add in the other $50,000 dollars worth of medical expenses she would've had without insurance... Oh my...
Will Presient Obama's plan help? Do we do better or worse with a government-run Police force, or fire department, or deparment of defense? And how 'bout them schools? Yeah, yeah... I hear you yelling, but the public school system made this the most educated counry in the world pre-WWII. Zero-tax idiots have badly eroded that, but it's salvageable. Medicine by private sector competition is just silly. We need a Canadian-syle system, and we need it 30 yhears ago!
© 2009 - All Rights Reserved R C Larlham
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Comments: 61
I do know the example of government run schools belabors your point badly. Pre WW2 was over 60 years ago and American schools have continued to slip the entire time we have been pouring trillions into them. So people complaining about taxation to support at best a mediocre system have room for complaint. Overall, government does little well except spend money unaccountably. Be careful of your wish for a government run health service as once we get it, there will no turning back nor alternative for the majority of us unable to hop jets for care.
That song's been sung since forever. It's tune was written by John D. Rockefeller, with lyrics by the carnegies and Astors. Time and past time to change the tune. We've paid your piper long enough.
To sign a petition for national healthcare go to WWW.SICKOCURE.ORG.
Though I have to say...Canadian style doesn't appeal to me. Perhaps Netherlands style or other European style, but the Canadian system has been roundly and justly criticized by many, mostly Canadians. :/
If it isn't...
Alot of folks think that people who don't have insurance are too lazy or not qualified to do anything for a company that offers insurance. I've heard it so many times. "Well, it's not MY problem, I chose to work for someone who offers insurance and they didn't. Too bad!" The thing that most people don't realize is that many people don't qualify for insurance, at any cost.
My nephew was born with a heart defect. Thankfully, my brother in law had insurance. At 3 months of age, my nephew underwent open heart surgery to repair a hole in his heart. About a year later, he underwent a second surgery to have a stint placed in his coronary artery. He's fine now, he's a healthy little 3 year old boy. Thank goodness. At some point, he will outgrow the stint and it will need to be replaced.
About 6 months ago, my brother in law lost his job. He was laid off. My sister is a stay at home mom so they lost their only income. They had no choice but to pay for COBRA at $1,500 a month. Pretty tough with no income. If they failed to maintain their COBRA, my nephew's heart condition would be deemed "pre-existing" and any and all future insurance companies could choose not to cover any medications or procedures.
Thankfully, they scraped by and my brother in law found a job about 2 months later. But now, forever, my nephew will not be able to lapse insurance coverage for even a day. It's crazy!!
Medicare too is a whole other story. I used to be a caregiver for my grandparents. They had medicare. Medicare has a max it will pay for medications. Once you max out, that's it. The dreaded "doughnut hole"!!! Well, my grandmother hit the doughnut hole. She took 5 different medications. She had to pick and choose which ones she would take. She decided that she didn't REALLY need to take her dementia medicine. It wouldn't kill her NOT to take it unlike skipping her heart medicines. That's pathetic. Our seniors deserve SO much more.
Also alot of people don't think about the fact that they are already paying for other people's insurance. Think about it. My husband works for the County along with a few thousand other people. The County pays over $800 a month, just for MY family. Multiply that by a few thousand. If the County didn't have to pay for insurance, property taxes might be able to be lowered. Buying a new car? Expect a $1,000 markup just to cover the cost of the auto-worker's health care. Any company in every industry has to markup the cost of their product to pay for the insurance.
I'm sorry to ramble Chuck, but health care is one of the issues that really matters to me. I hope, as you do, that something will improve.
Yep. Many of us alive today are alive because of those for profit drug companies developed usable drugs. Virtually none of them came from government labs and all were developed in one of the most heavily regulated industries in America. What is the concept to field test time frame now? Its over 12 years because of the "unregulated" pharma companies have to go through all those non existent testing and quality regs.
C'mon Chuck, its cool to bust on an industry but at least realize that the term unregulated does not apply to any aspect of the American business community and hasn't for some time. If the US phrama industry was so unregulated, it would be many factors larger than it is.
Nope, the rest of us pay it with higher costs at the hospital for our care. With national care, it would be an equal amount,
Everybody else. That $42,000 was what the insurance company paid. I paid $3,500. If I'd been uninsured, that $42,000 would have more likely been $65,000... or more. But htanx for your obviously very real concern for my plight. Not, however, that with insurance premiums, copays and deductibles, by the time I hit stop-loss, I'd kicked in $12,000 for my top-drawer insurance. The bad news is, a lot of folks who work for the same company go into that insurance cafeteria and come out with a whole lot less coverage. They can't afford a thousand dollars a month. I can't either, but I already know what it'll cost me if I don't. Some folks don't find out 'til it's too late.
I live in a country with a government run health system, and there is no state input into pharmaceutics other than a regulatory one, as in the States.
It took a long time for the Canadian system to get fully into place and it's been tweaked and tweaked ever since. It started back in the 1940s in one province.
Do you seriously think that there are doctors here who want their incomes determined by the government? Or insurance companies who want this? Or big drug companies? They are going to fight this forever, with the highest paid lobbyists.
_____
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
Another quote from the same article....
The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
http://tinyurl.com/c44ah5
Chuck, I understand the problems you are having as they are similar for members of my family. I just do not think the suggestions you have will work. I also think its ironic we blame a system for killing us that is the same one inventing the drugs we need for that continued existence.
Yeah, that's what I was saying, the rest of us pay for it...I think you misread what I wrote.
There is a big problem with people who say "I'm all set, it's not MY problem", because it could easily BECOME your problem.
Medication is WAY to expensive
On the other hand, my parents are going through pretty much the same thing you and Aunt Laura are, except with lower income and less insurance (thanks to the teacher's union's mismanagement of Ohio's State Teacher's Retirement System). I've watched my Mom get treated like an addict and a hypochondriac for wanting not to live completely pain free but just at a tolerable level of pain so she could still work, while the drug dealer who lived next door to them got to have free treatment for the throat cancer he caused himself, received whatever pain medications he wanted without question, and stayed out of jail despite the fact that his criminal activities were documented, just because the state prison system didn't want to take over his expensive medical bills.
I would agree with a temporary form of socialized health care if it came with some kind of reform that would stop frivolous malpractice lawsuits and put the breaks on the rising cost of malpractice insurance. If we can't fix the legal system, then it won't matter what kind of health care system the politicians come up with. It'll be bankrupt before it has a chance to help anyone. If we can fix the legal system, then eventually we won't need socialized medicine, because health care's biggest cost factor will be gone.
I know this feeling well....:(
But I want to step back a bit here. First, our glorious Republican Governor, John Engler and his statehouse henchmen reduced the maximum possible award for ANY medical suit. Would you care to guess how much medical and insurance costs have been reduced in the great State of Michigan? Got it in one - not one bit. In fact, it hasn't even slowed the rate of increase... of EITHER.
Second, unlike your mother, Hannah, your Aunt Laura and I enjoy first line medical treatment, and I'm promised we bot will until our deaths upon my retirement. However, so were my 'roune-the-corner neighbors and your Aunt Laura's best friend. Unfortunately, Ford's promise, even in writing, was broken last year. And a court ruled that, since the promise wasn't a contract signed by both parties, the party that made it, didn't have to keep it.
And let's not forget the 46 MILLION people in this country, of all ages, who have not one dollar's worth of any kind of insurance. I have no doubt that I'll have to give up or pay even more for some of my 'perks' for them to get any insurance at all. That's OK, 'cause it's fair. Your cousin's right. Some level of insurance oughta be a right in this country.
As for your Grandmother... Um-m-m-m... Hattie was a little less dogmatic on that than you might think. Her position was that we wouldn't take government money until we were allowed to spend it on care that really helped, instead of just custodial care. She got her way, finally. And then she took the money.
I always thought Doctors that thought I was after drugs while in High School were stupid. Apparently they hadn't been in an American HS for a LONG time. Now, I tell them that if a kid can get drugs online, I'm betting I could too.
Thank you, For Sharing!!!!!!
Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
In the end, it is the person you become, not the things you have achieved, that is the most important.
For example: I worked at a law firm. I had one child. There was a woman I worked with who mad .25 cents less then I did. I couldn't get food stamps, or child care assistance. She had 3 kids by three different men. She lived in section 8 housing, got rent assistance on top of that, food stamps, medicaid, plus our employee insurance, a LIVE IN nanny paid for by the state, and her youngest was in school full time.
Her section 8 house was WAY nicer then my crummy little appartment. I had to take in roommates, and go to food banks and pantries to support me and my son, there were times I fed him and told him I wasn't hungry.
Healthcare is a RIGHT, not a PRIVELEGE!
The "ethical drug companies" are not ethical at all.
A complete solution which rewards only good patient outcomes is described in Invisible Hand.
Also available without ads at www.nopom.info in both print and MP3.
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