(aka: "oh, my achy breaky heart - how we deceive ourselves!" cf. Jer. 17:5-10)
Continuing in the vein of the previous posts related to this story of my physical decline - it seems not only appropriate, but also necessary, for me to wax philosophical for a moment about the nature of our health care system.
No, I don't intend to launch into a tyraid about whether or not I think healthcare coverage should be universal, though I could perhaps give a biting retort to various politicians' cavalier use of the word "right!" in the context of affordable health care for every American....not because of the notion of the appropriateness or inappropriateness of such a promise, but purely on the basis of what precisely is a "right" - and how is it obtained ("endowed")....
What WAS the problem?
*When I went to work for the small family-owned business, I had no health insurance because my employer encouraged, and contributed funds for, a health savings account (which in principal I found to be very WISE!),
*but I did not qualify for the HSA friendly coverage because of my then current weight,
*which was the direct result of my ongoing health issues already in play, for which I then could not get good healthcare assistance
*because the monetary contributions I received from my employer FOR the HSA precluded my being able to purchase even Blue Cross Blue Shield - which supposedly never turns anyone away for any reason....
*so I had to either turn away the monthly check from my employer designed to aid with my health costs AND take on the additional monthly output of the cost of a stand-alone insurance policy (a net loss of roughly $450 out of an already thinly stretched monthly income), or live without health insurance.
*and then my relationship with that employer went south (see previous post), and I was told if I didn't get specific coverage, I would lose the monthly health bonus - a moot point, because either way I would have to get rid of one to get the other....And THAT, my friends, is a Can't-Win-For-Losing scenario.
"NEW" drugs on the market....REALLY??
My latest health education and concerns have also led me to reflect on the current interdependency of the Medical Profession and the profitability of the "big drug companies." And I apologize in advance, because THIS is where I will - for many of you - start to sound like an old Kook, or at best, a conspiracy-theorist. But I don't think I'm alone in my suspicions.
I am very thankful that I am NOW in a job in which I have finally gotten health insurance coverage - and even that was a long time coming due to "pre-existing conditions" clauses, and the like. However, because of the littany of health issues with which I was dealing, there were months in the past couples years where I was on no fewer than 8 prescriptions at one time. NONE of which addressed any "root cause" issues; that is to say, fully all 8 of my prescriptions were designed to treat SYMPTOMS - of asthma/chronic bronchitis (COPD) from which I was told I would never heal (post-Pneumonia), of various menstrual issues (associated with the PCOS), and borderline manic/depressive anxiety for which I was put on an anti-depressant.
I do not doubt that my physician(s) were motivated by a genuine desire to help me get well, so I do not mean to speak in such a way as to condemn any medical professionals, or mine in particular.....But I DO suspect that our cultural dependence on pills and medications stems - at best - from an all-pervasive "faith" in not only science, but man's apparently limitless capacity to know-all when it comes to medical advances, etc.
So what exactly IS the problem?
*drug companies offer incentives to medical professionals to promote their patented (key word, PATENTED) medications. so while generic labels may do just fine, your doctor - unless you TELL him/her that you have financial limitations - will likely prescribe a NAME brand before a generic one.
*my physician offered me free samples of yet another "NEW" anti-allergy type medication - another new name brand on the market - simply because it was free. Very helpful. But what was this mysterious "NEW" drug, you may ask? the exact same one as the OLD name brand, for which there was now a generic equivalent on the market because the patent had expired - and the drug manufacturer only modified a non-active ingredient in the formula so they could get a new patent on their "new" drug - a mere re-packaging of the OLD one that I could get for $4 at Walmart, if only I and my physician knew better (which, thankfully, we do, but what of patients who blindly trust physicians who might be less than 100% selfless when dolling out prescriptions?)
*additionally, for all their knowledge (and don't get me wrong, I am THANKFUL for all our medical knowledge! Let me be clear, I am not advocating an anti-medicine position here!), medical professionals of any breed are still merely human, and cannot possibly know all the reasons for all the varieties of side-effects of any given drug and/or why or how this drug might interact with that drug, or why some 95% of the population takes one drug without any notable adverse effects while the other 5% suffer potentially horrendous consequences....
~Now, I am the first to find such small print lists of all the possible side-effects veritably laughable. Fallible humanity swings both directions - both the "professionals" AND the "patients" are constrained by their own finite natures, and are apt to be misled, and (even if we give the benefit of the doubt and assume NO malice on anyone's part) we are all inescapably flawed....
Some Lessons Learned?
*we have made TREMENDOUS advances in medical knowledge, but we are STILL "fearfully and wonderfully" made, and the WAY we heal, and the varieties of ways things can go wrong with the human body, are still very largely mysterious. (I know we have made oh so many advances in our knowledge - but I think it would behoove us to cultivate a humble respect for that which we just do not know....)
*our "faith" in our "healers" is largely the consequence, in my opinion, of having abandoned the notion of God as Creator - and entrusting ourselves to HIM as the one who just might have known what he was doing when he made our bodies to function in this or that "fearful and wonderful" way, up to and including what kinds of foods we should be ingesting, and what kinds of "healing balm(s)" we might be able to discover by exploring HIS creation....
*by virtue of living in a society, we are - like it or not - at the mercy, to a large extent, of a great many people - ALL of whom are at the start at LEAST "finite" and "sinful" ("depraved") and easily even self-deceived [to say nothing of greed and malicious intent]. This is true economically, politically, and even in medical circles where the very best of our men and women STILL cannot agree on what it means to "first do no harm."
*perhaps - just perhaps - it would be wise to re-assess all of these things in light of our "first faith" - What man has discovered? or what man has YET to discover? about the intricasies of how we are made. (Shall we worship, revere, esteem, and place our trust so wholly in created things? Or the Creator of all things?)
*perhaps - just perhaps - our "best life now" (to borrow a popular book title) starts with a change of heart....
I agree with most all you have said with one exception...my doctor prescribed me two name brand drugs, but when I filled the prescription I received generics. For my insurance, I automatically receive generics when available unless the doctor writes "fill as prescribed" on the slip, meaning do not give generics.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is just my insurance company, but it seems most pharmacies now will suggest generics (Meijer has this policy, maybe also D&W and some of the national chains). Or, at the very least, you can ask if there is a generic version available. Though if you are talking about people with insurance coverage, it might not make a difference.