Our total amount out of pocket expense for drugs on the presidents prescription program is now right around a hundred dollars a month. This on a fixed income is a lot more then we have to spend. One drug that I take has had the best effect on my seizures of any medication I have used so far. Trilipital does a real good job of curbing my seizures. I use to get it for $7.00 for three months, it is now $30 per month. The drug czar that produces it says that since I have prescription coverage I can afford to buy it. Little do they know that I really can not afford it. Our president and the republicans in Washington that produced this little lie need to be ran out of Washington on a rail. In my previous post I mentioned the idea of forcing the drug companies to stop advertising on the general media, that is TV, Radio, News Papers and Magazines (with the exception of the medical journals). They should additionally be very limited on what a Drug rep can promise or give to a doctor. They need to leave the doctors and patience alone so that we can better manage our care. It is the patients together with the doctors who manage our care. When these companies inject themselves into this formula it destroys this relationship.
The net result of this is to raise the price of medications and make millions for the drug companies. The HMO’s take advantage of this by creating what is termed formularies to control the cost of medications. These formularies are created by Doctor’s who are hired by the HMO’s to control the cost of medications. The problem is that your doctor knows what will work best for you in conjunction with what you have told him/her. Your doctor may believe that a certain medication will work best for you under your conditions demands. However, when it comes to buying that drug the HMO is more likely to look at the formulary and if your medication is not on that list you end up paying full price. That means that the HMO and The Pharmaceutical company’s are deciding what is best for you and not your doctor or you.
The Water Cure: An interview with Dr. Batmanghelidj
Health Care Gone Mad 