Just went to the pharmacy to fill Miracle Drug X and pick up a refill. Now, let me preface this by saying I’m switching to Miracle Drug X because researchers have only just begun to discover the profoundly fucked up long term side effects Miracle Drugs Y and Z had on little lab rats like me. Side effects not so bad as the like of the ovarian cysts produced by Miracle Drug A – which I took on and off when I was younger – but none the less stupendous enough to make the gallows humor of a songs like “The Thorazine Shuffle” long stale.
So, the pharmacy fills my prescription and rings me up. Need I even say it? My insurance company doesn’t want to cover Miracle Drug X. Which means I paid $242 for Miracle Drug X instead of my $20 co-pay.
Usually, if an insurance company declines payment on a new medication they want you to try another medication first (read: a medication they’ve bargained for a cheaper price on). I’m a little bewildered though because I’ve been on these Miracle Drugs for the last 15 years and I’m pretty sure I’ve taken damn near everything.
So here we are again. Welcome to America. Where the highly insured can still pay $1,042 a month in out-of-pocket medical costs.
And so you heard it here first: fuck the workers, unions be damned, God bless WalMart.
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2 comments:
It's tough to be principled when I just found out that I can get my generic prescription for $4 at Wal-Mart instead of the $93 I've been paying at Walgreen's. Nevertheless, I think Target (who knew they had a pharmacy) also sells $4 generics, and Fred Meyer too (if you ask nicely), so thankfully I can put off compromising my ideals for another day.
Death to Big Pharma!
That's a really good point. I've been meaning to compare the WalMart and Target lists and see what the options are. I just have a hard time hating WalMart when they've managed to push the other big pharmacy chains towards offering cheap generics (at least cheaper than the co-pay) and when they may conceivably threaten the bargaining schemes of the major drug companies and insurers.
I mean, principles shouldn't cost so damn much. Ya know?
Yeah. Death to Big Pharma, death to the current state of our Insurance Laws and death to Insurance Parity!
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