Monday, April 11, 2011

A Generic Rant

This is a rant. I don't do these often, but please feel free to bypass this blog entry if you wish.

About five weeks ago, I picked up my prescription for my blood pressure medication and brought it home.

The pills were different. I called the pharmacy. Did you give me the wrong pills, I asked. No, we changed our generic supplier and didn't tell you.

Cue now to today. My blood pressure has been creeping steadily upward over - you guessed it - the last five weeks. It has culminated in a major headache and high and somewhat scary blood pressure numbers. I am counting the hours until I can get in to see my doctor. All of this so the pharmacy can save a few pennies while I feel terrible and die a slow and agonizing death.

My insurance company, of course, won't pay for the name brand medication, and the pharmacy won't sell me the name brand medication because I have insurance. How's that for a nice catch-22?

Changing generics wouldn't be a problem if the generics were actually the same as the name brand medication. However, I have found this is not so. This is not the first time the pharmacy has changed generics with my blood pressure medication and I have had problems. It is a problem I have with nearly all of my medications when I am switched from brand name to the supposedly the same but not generic. It's a well-documented problem that no one is doing anything about.

But we don't want no government regulations in this country! We can't have any one tell us what to do. What the hell? Why is it better that some idiot in a private healthcare company tell me what to do than the government? What damn difference does it make? I'm still being told what I can and can't do and I'm still suffering for it! I'm paying over $7,000 a year for the privilege of being told by some high school beauty queen that the medication my doctor prescribes for me isn't the drug they want me to take.

Is this better because I have the choice of which stupid insurance company to use? Well, guess what, I don't really have a choice. I am on the insurance provided by husband's place of employment because we can't afford anything else. Neither can anyone else I know.

Better yet, the laws are already in place that keep me on this insurance AND HAVE BEEN FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS OR SO. I can't switch because apparently by law I have to be on the insurance provided by my employer. I happen to know I can go to an insurance company down the road and get the exact same policy with the exact same provider for half the price, but because my husband's company offers it, I have to get it there. That is what the insurance agent told me. They can't sell it to me. It's the law and it has been since Ronald Reagan, that great Republican god of commerce and industry.

And this is better? This is great? This is American health care, capitalist style, because all we furking care about in this country is the big green great Goddamn almighty dollar. We live in a society of hooray for me and furk you and I am sick of it.

I am sick of being told that a stupid piece of paper with George Washington's picture on it is more important than any single person's health. I am sick of being told that piece of paper is more important that helping people with mental illness, or putting roofs over the heads of people who are living in their cars.

I am sick of hearing that this stupid piece of paper is more important than education, than health care, than you and me. It's a stupid furking piece of paper! It is not more important than any single living soul on this planet. Stop worshiping money, people! Stop it stop it stop it! It is not the Holy Grail. It is not the reason to live.

The reason to live is to have relationships, to love, to honor, to feel, to care, to provide for yourself and others in the best way you know how. It's not about collecting stupid pieces of green paper! It is not! Why do we think it is?

And why when someone wants to live for peace and brotherhood, and goodness and kindness, why do we rip that person apart? We are one screwed up society. We're a bunch a freaking mental cases running around. The sane people can't be heard because the lunatics are screaming so loud no one can hear anything else.

Let me tell you something. I believe in people. I believe in putting people first, dollars second. I believe in government regulations and taking care of people.

If the fact that I care about you more than I do the dollar bills in my wallet makes me a socialist, then fine, I'm a socialist. Call me names if it will make you feel better. You know I'm right in the long run.

Now excuse me, I'm going to take some generic acetaminophen that probably won't help this headache because it isn't as good as the name brand.

7 comments:

  1. David tends to have issues with his blood pressure anytime there is a change made too. Just sucks.

    Di

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  2. I have always used outside insurance. My husband is under his employer, but it's much too high to add us, we can do it cheaper through an outside source. I don't know why you can't? What needs to be done is a regulation on the insurance companies that are just ripping us off, that's the first step....so sorry you and your health are stuck in the middle, yes, that certainly is a catch 22....hope you are feeling better soon and get the correct meds you need!

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  3. YOu're justified in ranting. I think you just gave voice to concerns that many have.

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  4. I agree with your rant. Our insurance won't pay for our daughter's name brand RX, so we simply pay it ourselves. We won't be told by the insurance company or the state of Virginia what we can and cannot use. (According to CVS, it's a Virginia state law that they dispense the generic drug when the doctor hasn't specified "name brand only" on the script. And this is without notifying us first, they just went ahead and filled it with generic!)

    I hope you get this straightened out and you get to feeling better soon.

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  5. I totally empathize! Seems our lives are filled with rant-ready situations be they insurers, cable companies, or whatever.

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  6. I agree with you - 100%. I get sick every time I think about health insurance. We are paying $1,500.00 a month for our health insurance and we haven't been to a doctor in almost a year.

    I think this country is headed in the wrong direction and it really scares me. The rich get richer and the rest of us get poorer and poorer.

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  7. You said it all, put the voice to the bizarre situation we are in as a culture. How can we be considered a wise and civilized creature when we measure our importance in green papers???? Thanks for this rant, it makes me feel better, but I want you to feel better. How did this turn out for you?

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