angry

i read this article this morning and it angered me http://www.cchrint.org/2009/11/16/pharmas-1-7-billion-internet-marketing-pipeline/.  i am angered for many reasons but one reason is because they can spend this type of money but still charge an absolutely exhorbanent amount of money for fertility meds!  for instance, the list of meds that i posted here and photographed here, without insurance coverage, would cost WELL over $5,000.  HOW can these drug companies justify that while spending this amount of money on MARKETING TO THE PUBLIC?  HOW can non-medical persons make a diagnosis???  this should be left up to DOCTORS to diagnose!!! 

let's not just get stuck on fertility meds.  how about every day-type medications?  for instance, i have reflux.  i have tried many different medications for relief from over-the-counter to prescription.  BUT Nexium is not covered under my insurance and it works for me.   i know it works because, long story short, i went to refill my prescription for Nexium, that i have been using for 18 months with insurance coverage, no problem, and was told that our insurance company needed me to NOW jump through hoops, write a manifesto in blood and give up my first born (HA!) before they would cover it anymore.  retail price?  EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  and there is no generic for this medication, that works for me.  so i just now have to take twice as much of something else to get SOME (not total) relief....insanity.

THIS crap is why we need reform.  but isn't it ironic that these big pharma companies were not targeted at all under the new government plan (this isn't a democrat vs. republican thing either - it's a citizen versus government-being-controlled-by-big-business thing).  no reform mandated to them.  just ALL of us having to pay higher taxes to cover all of this.  THAT is what is wrong. 

so let's move on to another thing that ticks me off in this article....what has happened in the past 10 to 20 years that has caused it to be where you are in the minority if you are NOT being treated for some "disorder"?  bi-polar, depression, ADHD, etc. diagnoses are running rampant in our society.  i am NOT pulling a tom cruise and saying that these disorders do not exist - not at ALL!  i have been treated for depression and anxiety.  i KNOW they are real.  i know MANY people that have.  the medications i was on in the past seriously saved my life. 

i think also, however, that these things are overdiagnosed and treated with unnecessary medications.  and i firmly believe that there are SOME medications that actually make the problem worse.  someone very close to me has had this happen.  which leads her to believe that she didn't "need" the medication but perhaps could have dealt with "life" in a different manner.  but her doctor, without much discussion, just wrote her a prescription....AGAIN I AM NOT SAYING THAT THESE DISEASES AND DISORDERS DO NOT EXIST OR THAT THESE MEDICATIONS DO NOT HELP SOME PEOPLE....ONLY THAT SOME PEOPLE THAT DO NOT NEED THEM ARE BEING PRESCRIBED THEM AND, IN TURN, MAKING THESE COMPANIES EVEN MORE SUCCESSFUL.....

i'm off my soapbox...but until more of us get angry about the injustices in big business, and strive to make them make changes, it will all continue....

in other news, we are moving forward with using our two frozen embryos (which i'm calling "totsicles" - i read that on someone else's blog and thought it hysterical!).  not sure when they will be thawed and transferred, but i just started the medications for it yesterday....

Comments

[Marybeth]

When my weight category was "super morbidly obese", I was taking somewhere around 8 prescription medications daily. This included Nexium, Metformin, and a host of others. I had begun to develop type 2 diabetes, had PCOS, high blood pressure, arthritis, etc. Let's not even talk about the plethora of antidepressants.

If I didn't have insurance, I would have spent a thousand plus a month.

The weight loss surgery procedure that I selected remains rarely covered, with patients referred to Lap Band or standard gastric bypass. My surgery is proven...PROVEN...to cure (CURE) diabetes within days, permanently, the only one that does. I know of type 1 diabetics who have traveled out of the country to have the procedure done in a modified way for no other reason but to cure their diabetes.

To qualify, you must show 2-3 years of medically supervised weight loss attempts, have a sustained weight overage of over 100 pounds for 5 years, etc. Even then your chances of being approved for duodenal switch are low.

Why? Well, why cure the cash cow, if you will pardon the pun? We spend more on diabetic supplies and treatments than any other condition. Had I not been able to get my company to cover it (through now-closed loopholes and being the world's most awesomest writer), I'd likely be in the 400 pound range now, still spending hundreds if not thousands.

There's a book called The Truth About Drug Companies, published about 5 years ago - http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Drug-Companies-Deceive/dp/0375760946/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283440465&sr=8-4 and it was stunning and depressing to read.