Universal Health Care

I was opposed to universal health care until this afternoon. I was not in favor of this proposed plan simply because I've heard some stories about it in other places. I had a doctor who worked in the UK who said he had the same patient every day simply because she thought he was cute. There was nothing wrong with this particular lady, but because she had access to a doctor she abused it. He told stories of the elderly worrying that they had every disease or that they were dying. The husband also convinced me that we might have to wait in long lines because we have fewer doctors than people living in the USA. It all made sense to me.

And then I went to pick up Ryan's prescription for GERD today and the lady says, "your total is $167.90."

"Is this a three month supply," I asked.

She didn't know so she went to find out. When she came back and informed me that our insurance no longer covered the meds, I wasn't too happy. In case you were wondering, we didn't purchase the meds. We left them there. There's no way that we could pay almost $200 every month (she also informed me that for some reason we were getting this at a discount and that the actual price is $205.25!).

We're waiting to see what the doctor says about what Ryan may be able to take in it's place. He was allergic to the wonderful $4 drug and we'd adjusted our small budget to fit in his needed med... now we don't know what we'll do.

It breaks my heart to think my kid needs a medicine and I can't afford it. Seriously does it cost them this much to make it? Drug companies are handing out samples of their latest work in doctor's offices, so why does this medicine cost so much? I just don't get it.

But I do get what people complain about when they say they just can't afford their meds. So, universal health care has my vote.