If this title sounds familiar, it is. It is almost the exact title of a post I did a while back. I had actually intended to write an update. Eventually. But the topic has now moved to the top of my list.
I am just so frustrated. So let me get started with my therapy session.
First I’ll give an update about my friend’s mother; the one I wrote about in that post. She ended up in the local hospital, very weak and very sick. Fluid around the heart, as I understand it. Her cardiologist, who has treated her for a number of years, insists that she got in such bad shape because she did not have the medicine she needed. But just take a guess at what medicine she was given while in the hospital. Easy question, I know. Because, of course, she received the correct medicine. Surely you remember? The one that cost $1,500 a month. She is home now but is very weak. My friend says her mother is really declining quickly.
Now, admittedly, elderly people can be fine one day and quite ill the next. However, I still have to ask myself several questions. First, why can she receive the medicine only while in the hospital? Is that because it is truly the medicine that is best for her AND will get her well enough to go home as soon as possible? Second question. Hasn’t the insurance company added an expense for a hospital stay? And isn’t it at least somewhat logical to assume there will be another if she has inadequate medicine and can’t get better? I could go on and on. But let me instead give several other new examples.
Last week I talked to a man I’ve known for 17 years. He is a diabetic. But he didn’t have any problems until shortly before turning 70. He was put on medication; attempts to be compliant (As if his wife would let him be otherwise!), and was doing well. Recently his insurance company insisted his medicine be changed. The $900 a month price was just too high. So, a second medicine was prescribed. But he isn’t making out too much better than my friend’s mother. They have been unable to regulate his blood sugar properly. He looks like he has been beaten. The day I talked to him he had an appointment with his doctor. It was his hope that the doctor could persuade the insurance company to pay for the medicine that works for him.
Today I talked to someone younger, much younger, who needed to add a new spouse to the employer’s health insurance plan. The cost? Anywhere from $487 to $547 a month, depending on responses to health questions. If this couple has a child, the cost will be an additional $180 a month. Think they are going to bother completing the application for now?
It is my understanding that the large health insurance companies have made record profits for a third year. Now I have not researched that to the degree I normally do. But, I have to tell you, based on what people I know personally are experiencing, I find it easy to assume that research will verify my understanding. And, of course, it is also true, I believe, for the pharmaceutical companies. I don’t know if there have been records, or if so, for how many years. But, as I said my diabetic friend, just how many people in this country have to take that medicine that costs $900 a month? In January 2011 statistics indicated that over 25 million American children and adults have diabetes. And how many are not yet diagnosed? If even a number of those people take medication costing half as much as my friend’s $900 a month medicine, that sounds like a “viable” business, with potential for pretty substantial profit, does it not?
Here’s verbatim what I said to this diabetic friend. We claim to be the greatest country in the world. (Shame on us for thinking we’re always the best.) How is it that ANY medicine should cost $900 a month? He didn’t have an answer. Neither do I.
Within a two month period, I have heard about two people in their 70’s who have been made more sick because the cost of the necessary medicine is too high and an alternate had to be prescribed. How can that be? And how is it that we expect young people to graduate from college with a good amount of student loans to repay AND pay health insurance premiums that could equal some mortgages? Oh, and did I mention what the deductibles are on this health insurance plan? The trip I had to make to Urgent Care for my wrist would have cost this younger couple a minimum of $75. So, if one of them had been injured and visited Urgent Care, the total for that month’s medical insurance and expenses would be a minimum of $562.
Come to think of it, this IS the greatest country in the world. IF you are health insurance or pharmaceutical executives, isn’t it?
Note: I won’t open this one up for comments. Send me an email if you know my address. But I simply can’t take the chance of hearing someone defend such practices. I have very low blood pressure. I want to keep it that way. Who knows what high blood pressure would cost us?
