Shaddup Already!
2005-07-14
Pharmacists rule, insurance companies suck!
I have GERD. I don't know if you have ever experienced heartburn, but I have. I thought I had experienced it before I developed GERD, but I was wrong. There are no words to describe the pain that is caused by true, constant heartburn.Now I've experienced a great many kinds of pain and heartburn isn't the worst among them, but it definitely is up there. Imagine a burning hot rock sitting in your espohagus somewhere between your throat and your heart. It just sits there. Nothing you can do will remove this rock. You can try eating something soothing, something warm, something cold--nothing works. It is an insidious, non-stop ache in your chest.
When I was first diagnosed my doctor put me on Prevacid. This was wonderful. It worked great and I didn't have any side effects. Then my insurance company (jerck-screwyou)decided to not cover Prevacid any longer. However, they would cover Prilosec. They probably knew that it was only a matter of months before this would be available over the counter and they could refuse to cover it in it's prescription form.
Once it went OTC, it was nearly impossible to get. I credit the incredible marketing of this drug. All of a sudden, everyone needed prilosec. It is still hard to get, but it is getting easier.
I went from pay $15 a month on my prilosec to paying nearly $40 a month. That's a lot of money. I have other medications to consider as well and this all adds up.
I paid the price from the time it came out OTC and a couple of weeks ago. When I went in to see my nurse practitioner, I voiced my desire to have some sort of medication that insurance would cover. She agreed to work with me and she wrote me a script for prevacid.
The insurance company declined it.
So I went to the jerck-screwyou website and looked up their formulary guide to see what they would cover. There were a whole slew of drugs listed in there, including the generic form of prilosec.
I conveyed this information to the doctor's office and they were going to try calling in a prescription for the generic prilosec.
That was a couple of days ago. So I called the pharmacy to see if I had medicine waiting there. I had just taken my last prilosec this morning. My pharmacist (aka my new hero) tells me that there is no prescription there, but he just got in a bunch of samples of Prilosec that he will give me provided I can be in there before 7:00 tonight. Hell, yeah!
He gave me a full month's worth of medication for free! This is great because this is the month that I don't get a paycheck. So things tend to get a little tighter than usual around the end of July.
Ironically, when I got home my phone rang. It was my doctor's office. jerck-screwyou told them that if I wanted to take any medication in Prilosec's class, I would have to buy it OTC. Frankly, I don't *want* to take it, I *need* to take it.
I really am resentful of my insurance companies at this time. First these drug issues with jerck-screwyou and then there is fuckinya HMO who feel it is not only appropriate, but it is necessary that they sign me up in a "program" that will help manage my back pain.
I didn't ask for this. I don't want this. I have a definite problem with my insurance company dictating my health care. I'm seriously pissed about the state of health care in America. Frankly, my nurse practitioner was pissed too when she heard about this.
I should be able to choose my doctors, choose (along with my doctors) what medications are best for me, choose the tests I need to undergo and choose my fucking treatment. This is MY body. I am not a bottom line on some spreadsheet.
When concerns are brought to the benefits department, they act as though was should all be so frickin' grateful to have this coverage because they pay for it all.
That, my friends, is bullshit. They figure our benefits into what our pay is. I would much rather make what they say I make (including benefits) and arrange my own healthcare than get the pittance I get now. That pittance comes at a high price of expected gratitude for "all they provide."
So here goes, thank you school board for paying me a crappy salary and not allowing me to use my leverage as a consumer to get the healthcare and prescription coverage I deserve.
