A Health Insurer would kill you if it were Convenient

[cthulu2016]

In the big wide world of Health Insurers fucking with people this is a relatively minor thing, but probably very widespread...

A few years back I took a prescription medicine regularly that was on-patent. A brand-name drug, and costly for that reason.

I have nothing against generics. A few are probably not quite the same as the drug they are supposed to replace, but most are effective.

But there was no generic for this drug, which worked well.

One day I got a phone call from my large, reputable insurance company. A robot voice told me that this drug I was taking was now available as a generic, and that I needed to write down the name of the generic and get the doctor to switch the prescription.

The robot voice was quite specific. It named the drug I was taking and the generic version of that drug I needed to switch to.

So I wrote it down and googled it.

It was not a generic of the drug I was taking.

It was the generic form of a different, older drug for the same condition. Different, as in different. Not the same chemical. (And something I had actually taken, but that had a high side-effect profile for me.)

What a helpful robot!

[lastlib]

1. One DID kill my sister.

That's close enough to the truth of the matter, if not the literal truth.

They wouldn't cover the drug she needed to counteract the side effects of her chemotherapy, because it was "deemed experimental", and because the cost of them would put her over her annual limit (in May)....She was in the process of filing for bankruptcy so she could qualify for Medicaid when she died.


Profit-sucking Fuckwads!

[bluestate10]

2. The smart insurers keep you healthy and paying premiums. nt

[Romulox]

3. Health insurers make money by denying people care. And they're mandatory. It's the law. nt

[xchrom]

4. +1

[louis-t]

5. I tell my repug family and co-workers this all the time:

Last edited Fri Oct 12, 2012, 04:41 PM - Edit history (1)

"They would kill YOU, they would kill your children, they would kill your grandchildren to stuff a few bucks in their pocket." This statement is usually met with mumbling and walking in another direction.