What's That
All About?
So, I went to the pharmacy to get my
prescription filled. It is on the Wal-Mart $10 list and I have been
paying out of pocket for it for years. I thought “well, now that I
have my new Medicare benefit this will be like $2 or something.”
Think again! When the pharmacist rang it up she said proudly, “that
will be $155.” I responded with surprise to say the least and
asked exactly how it is that my prescription costs more now than when
I paid cash? They rechecked it and said that was indeed the case and
I had them ring it up as a cash sale. This is not the only time. I
had an albuterol inhaler that cost $47 and change without insurance
and $46 and change with insurance for a savings of a buck or so and
the entire amount going toward reaching my doughnut hole where I pay
for everything which would not be much of a change since I have been
doing it for years. I can buy 6 of those inhalers from Canada for
the same money. Get this! Now I have a Medicare C plan that costs be
around $150 per month and my prescriptions are now more than before.
But if I don't sign up for the Medicare benefit then I am penalized
later. So, what is the deal?
Here is the deal. Our Congress, in
their allegiance to the obviously false notion that competition among
drug makers brings prices down, made it illegal for Medicare to use
its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower prices giving Big Pharma
a gift worth billions of dollars of your tax money. Now, if you want
to rant about taxes here is a good chance to do just that. Just call
your Congressman or Congresswoman and tell them that free enterprise
is just great but maybe they ought to consider the free enterprise of
your checkbook. Now, I am thrilled to have some medical coverage now
because I have not had any for years due to the exorbitant cost.
Even with what I now have I am exposed to catastrophic financial
burdens and, as far as I can tell, unless I start using a lot more
drugs my plan is a net loss to me.
While I am on this topic, you may
recall that I have held forth against the new scheduled drug bill
that requires me to go pee in a cup every three months for a
prescription that I have had for many years. Now, instead of paying
$8 for the prescription I now get to pay for a doctor's visit and lab
work. Fortunately Medicare picks up most of the extra tab but what
that really means is that you are helping pay for my totally
unnecessary doctor's visits and lab work. Thank you very much. As I
have said before, wouldn't it be enough to just run the prescriptions
through KASPER, our drug monitoring agency, until some evidence of
misuse pops up? It seems that our legislators, when given a chance
to revisit this and do it some justice, decided that some tinkering
was better than offending Congressman Rogers and Greg Stumbo. My
guess is that you pay for their insurance coverage also.
There are a couple of prescriptions
that I get from Canada due to the difference in costs which amounts
to hundreds of dollars per prescription. Yes, I am a bit uneasy
about not having the FDA keeping track of my drugs but the
alternative is to not use them. Using them at $500 per prescription
is out of the question. Insurance companies use their buying power
to negotiate lower prices from the pharmaceutical industry and then
bill the U.S. Government for full price making a handy profit on the
drugs along with the handsome premiums they charge you. Think about
it. You pay both ways. If that isn't socialized medicine then I
don't know what is. If you, the taxpayer, is going to get stuck with
the bill you might as well get a good deal for it. But, no. As I
previously said, our Congress saw fit to prevent the Federal
Government in the form of Medicare, Tricare and whatever else from
negotiating lower prices for you, the taxpayer. Why? It is no
secret that Big Pharma charges American residents many times more
than what is charged in the rest of the world. The reason is simple,
they make more money that way. One of the things they tell us is
that they must make the exorbitant profits on the American market
because they can't on the overseas market. Duh! Why can't they? It
is because those countries do what we don't. They regulate their
insurance industries and use purchasing power to negotiate lower
prices. The fact of the matter is that we transfer billions of your
tax dollars to the pharmaceutical industry needlessly, just as a
gift. That happens because your legislators have their hands in the
pockets of Big Pharma. If you want to see just take a trip to Open
Secrets.Org and check it out.
People are scared to death of what is
going to happen with Obamacare and socialized medicine. First,
medicine is already socialized but to the benefit of Big Pharma and
the insurance industry. Secondly, according to the preliminary
results from California, the biggest user of Obamacare, insurance
rates are lower than expected. Don't expect a program as big as
Obamacare to implement without some headaches. Social Security
didn't and neither did Medicare. But there are some features of
Obamacare that are pretty neat one of which requires the insurance
companies to pay out 80% of their premiums in benefits.
Make no mistake, the regulated
industries will not hesitate to spend millions, even billions, to
influence legislation in their favor. Don't expect your legislator
to act with your interests at heart. Very few will do that. Most
will act in their own self interest but if their self interest in
being reelected is tied to your getting a fair deal then things will
be better.
Whenever politicians don't want to talk
about something they change the subject to something they do want to
talk about. Something they can use to get your attention off the
matters that really make a difference to you. Sound familiar? No
one is talking about the ridiculous cost of medicine and the delivery
of medical care because it is a hard subject and would require some
serious thinking. It would also require taking a position on the
issues which is exactly what they don't want to do.
So, my take on paying more for
prescriptions now that I have insurance coverage? What's that all
about anyway?
