One year since I became old

Posted on July 10, 2007 by Gene

You may recall, as I do, that fateful evening one year ago today when I innocently began mowing my lawn. A fateful evening that ended with me in the hospital, and the next morning having small wires and mechanisms run up through my arteries and to my heart. The remains of this adventure are lodged there today, three little metal mesh devices.
And in pills.
Which brings us to prescriptions.

I tend to think that I have been served very well by Kaiser Permanente; even after watching Michael Moore’s “Sicko” — which I wholeheartedly recommend, it was eye-opening and very interesting — I still think Kaiser works quite well. Except that I have the means to pay a $300 premium every month in order to be looked after by them. At least, I have the means for at least the short term future.
Today I went to refill some of my prescriptions. The day after the heart attack I started taking Plavix, which was pretty damned expensive. But a few months later, a generic version arrived and saved me hundreds of dollars per refill — Kaiser only charged me $10. Sadly, last month, generic Plavix was taken off the market after a patent suit, and today my prescription cost a whopping $285. Now this makes the pricing of drugs even more incomprehensible than before: if the generic version was so much less (even with a Kaiser subsidy) how can they justify selling Plavix at such a huge markup? I can’t imagine being able to pay that much if my circumstances were just slightly different; and there are so many millions of people out there who simply can’t afford to buy medicine at all.
I’m a proponent of free, universal health care because I think it should be ubiquitous and free just like fire stations, police, and libraries. If we spend tax money on free books and movies for everyone, if we spent tax money on firefighting — saving people and property from fire — shouldn’t we also spend tax money on saving people from death and disease?
And perhaps a little less tax money on subsidizing enormous tax breaks for people who buy Hummers?