Healthcare Crisis Victim
For the past year I have been sans health insurance. When I turned 21, my parents' insurance companies decided it was time for me to go - regardless if I was pursuing a degree or not. I lost my insurance through my previous employer last July because I "didn't work enough" - which is pretty hard to do when you're "volunteering" 40 hours a week for pharmacy rotations. My retaliation consisted of me quitting my job and giving a very pissy exit interview (probably should've heeded that 'pharmacy is a closed community' advice, but I was pist). All this being said, I have been extremely lucky to not require healthcare. Sure, I get a prescription filled every 3 months and dish out $150 - but beyond that, I'm a pretty healthcare-less person. Unfortunately, I am now nursing an injured knee. I'm still not sure what is wrong - RICE appears to help, but only temporarily. The swelling is reduced but still is limiting my range of motion. My mother insists that I see the doctor. This sounds great - except I'm pretty sure $100 won't even touch the diagnosis part of the visit. My mom recently injured her knee and the MRI alone cost $1500. $1500?!?! How about I give them $1.50 and they run a bar magnet around my knee? I honestly don't know how individuals without health insurance survive. God help you if you are in need of emergency care. My grandfather recently went to the ER for shoulder pain, $5000 (not including x-rays) later he has a bruise. It cost them $5000 to tell him he has a bruise? Of course it doesn't.
From working in community pharmacy, I know how the health care system works. And now, I'm going to sell them all out. Sit down for this one. Insurance company reimbursement is significantly less than what the pharmacy (I'm sure this holds true for physicians, dentists, hosptials, etc) would like. This is especially true with institutions such as Medicare and Medicaid. Often times with Medicaid, we actually lost money on prescriptions. The pharmacy has to make up this slack somewhere - and they make it up on the non-insured person. Newsflash - 20 tablets of generic ciprofloxacin does not cost the pharmacy $75. The entire bottle of 100 tablets costs the pharmacy somewhere between $5-15 (depending on the warehouse purchased from). Granted, the pharmacy has to collect a dispensing fee, but it doesn't have to be with 500% profit. So, the person who really needs the price break doesn't get it - because they are the "cash cow" for the pharmacy. The most sickening thing I remember from retail pharmacy was the "switch the patient from brand to generic drug" speech. At first, I was all for it. I hate drug companies. But then my manager showed me the real reason for switching patients from brand to generic - profit margin. Our profit margin on brand name Cipro was something like $5. Our profit margin on generic ciprofloxacin was $70. Yes, the patient saved some money by switching to generic, but the pharmacy made money switching the patient. Very sickening. I'm still an advocate for community pharmacy, but after being a "cash cow", this advocate is losing her zest.
From working in community pharmacy, I know how the health care system works. And now, I'm going to sell them all out. Sit down for this one. Insurance company reimbursement is significantly less than what the pharmacy (I'm sure this holds true for physicians, dentists, hosptials, etc) would like. This is especially true with institutions such as Medicare and Medicaid. Often times with Medicaid, we actually lost money on prescriptions. The pharmacy has to make up this slack somewhere - and they make it up on the non-insured person. Newsflash - 20 tablets of generic ciprofloxacin does not cost the pharmacy $75. The entire bottle of 100 tablets costs the pharmacy somewhere between $5-15 (depending on the warehouse purchased from). Granted, the pharmacy has to collect a dispensing fee, but it doesn't have to be with 500% profit. So, the person who really needs the price break doesn't get it - because they are the "cash cow" for the pharmacy. The most sickening thing I remember from retail pharmacy was the "switch the patient from brand to generic drug" speech. At first, I was all for it. I hate drug companies. But then my manager showed me the real reason for switching patients from brand to generic - profit margin. Our profit margin on brand name Cipro was something like $5. Our profit margin on generic ciprofloxacin was $70. Yes, the patient saved some money by switching to generic, but the pharmacy made money switching the patient. Very sickening. I'm still an advocate for community pharmacy, but after being a "cash cow", this advocate is losing her zest.
posted by ahsirt at 6:35 PM
1 Comments:
So what? Waaaaa! I need healthcare!!!! Waaaaa!
just kidding
These are exactly the reasons we need national healthcare and we also need to somehow take the capitalism out of healthcare.
It was still better to use generic drugs over brand no matter whether we made more money or not. It always saves healthcare dollars, whether cash customer or insurance.
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