Kudos to me — I lived through another holiday season, survived vacation at home with husband and daughter (no mean feat I assure you), and after 12 days of not writing anything more than an address on an envelope, I’m back busily pecking away at the keyboard.
I am refreshed and ever-questioning, so here is my query for 2017: Why didn’t Hill, Bernie, or even Trump ever bring up the fact that the pharmaceutical companies here in the U.S. are taking advantage of providing life-saving drugs at such a ridiculously exorbitant price.
I follow recreational-vehicle YouTuber Carolyn’s RV Life. She’s a very adventurous soul who shares her experiences out on the open road, traveling from town to town with just her dog Capone to keep her company — and of course her blog (or vlog as they say of such “video logs”).
Her most recent vlog was that she needed to fill her prescription for migraine medication, but she was unable to get the script filled through her health plan because of various restrictions, so she decided to cross the boarder into Mexico and pick up the same pills without a prescription and at fraction of the cost.
She explained — with her plan the pills cost about the same, however it costs her $95 a month to have the plan, the plan limits the amount of medication she can get with one re-fill, and they won’t send her the meds when she needs them if she isn’t in the state at the time.
By comparison, the cost in Mexico is $1 per pill — no prescription needed, no limit, and no wait.
Here in the United States, the same meds go for $45 per pill if you don’t have a plan, and of course you need that script to get it filled.
Before you put on your Flash suit and zoom over the boarder to get your meds at half the price, you need to know the pharmacists there do not fill any prescriptions for schedule-1 drugs — opioids and other narcotics — and what you need is “a passport and cash … ’cause they don’t take checks,” she said.
So you won’t be able to get Vicodin or oxycodone, but you will get a nifty price on Viagra, antibiotics, insulin, and allergy meds.
Oh and the boarder guards let you back in with the drugs — if you declare them and they are on the accepted list.
Not for nuthin™, but I think that, along with building a wall and stopping business from migrating south, President-elect Trump should be looking into why Big Pharma has such free reign on pricing and why our very own citizens are being gouged for life-saving medicine when way down Mexico way, you can get what you need for a song.
Obamacare addressed the outrageous cost of doctors, now it’s time to address the outrageous cost of prescriptions.
Follow me Twitter @JDelBuono.
