Thu, 30 Jan 2003
Health Care Sucks
Dave Winer's been talking about the importance of the US healthcare system for a while and I tend to agree. I've had insulin dependent diabetes for most of my life so I have considerable experience with the healthcare system.
Tonight, my wife and I stopped by the local pharmacy to get our prescriptions refilled. We were very clear with the girl at the counter, and she wrote down our instructions, which were correct - I watched her write them down. We came back, paid our money, 2x$20 copays and headed home. I virtually always check the bag at the store but for some reason I didn't do that. That was a mistake.
The girl had informed me that my insulin, which is one of the most used brands and types on the market, was out. Now, the typical experience is, "oh, we're short a bottle" (I get 3/month). But this was literally, "we don't have any of your insulin. We'll get it tomorrow after 4." Fortunately, I don't wait till the last minute to get this stuff or I'd be headed for the emergency room, where it's always in stock.
If that was the end of our troubles it would be merely amusing. It wasn't.
My wife's medication should have been 30mg, the bottle she was given contained 40mg. On top of that, my other script wasn't filled at all and no excuse was given at the store.
Needless to say, I'll have a few choice words for the manager of this place in the morning. Hell, 16 year old crack addicts run McDonald's more smoothly. It really pisses me off when something as absolutely life-and-death critical as pharmaceuticals receives less care and attention than the feeding of my dog. I have a right to be pissed off. If I don't get insulin, I become ketoacidotic and die relatively quickly.
I have less-than-zero sympathy for these places when they get the shit sued out of them by a skilled attorney. In many cases, they've brought such wrath on themselves. It's not the healthcare victim's (or consumer's) fault that these morons can't do their jobs correctly.
This is the state of the healthcare system in the US. We pay more than ever and yet the service sucks in every conceivable way from my experience at the pharmacy to trying to make an appointment at the endocrinologist. And it's not getting better, it's getting worse. Do I think George W can fix this mess? When elephants roost in trees.
I pay in excess of $300 per month for the piss-poor HMO that my employer thinks I should be thrilled about. They just dropped the other major local choice from the menu prior to christmas, citing rising costs. That one could cost as much as $500 to over $1000 / month for family coverage. These are the costs to the employee after the employer paid it's share.
And what's the fundamental problem? Endless demand - as long as our need for healthcare is unbounded, the costs will continue to skyrocket. Sure, there are a bunch of odd complexities visited on this situation by government and the health care industry but does that change the fundamentals? I don't think so.
I am fortunate to be able to afford such ridiculous rates, many are less fortunate. Where this is all headed is unclear to me, but it's not something that inspires a warm fuzzy.
Posted at: 00:50 | permalink
