By Staff
Scot Beard
A few weeks ago, my wife had severe stomach pains and went to the doctor only to find out she had an ulcer.
He sent her home with a prescription, which she dropped off at the local pharmacy.
She was informed the prescription she was given would cost $340.
The product my wife was supposed to get consisted of an antacid and two antibiotics to help kill the bacteria that led to her excess stomach acid.
All three drugs come packaged together, so the company can charge an arm and a leg.
Or, in the case of my wife and I, the company was attempting to charge us a mortgage payment.
My wife decided to wait the get the prescription filled and suffered a bad flair up this week.
This time she went to another doctor and that physician prescribed the same drugs, but this time broke them up separately.
The cost of the new prescriptions was $62. Actually, that includes the three drugs and another one to help with nausea.
We saved $278 with the alternate prescription so we can help heal my wife's ulcer and make our house payment.
There was a time when I would roll my eyes when a commercial came on about the cost of drugs for senior citizens.
Now, I understand what the concerns are.
I personally think it is ridiculous for drug companies to charge these outrageous fees for their drugs, but I understand why they do it.
I do not have a problem with research, development or clinical trials.
What I have a problem with is the marketing of these drugs.
Buying advertising time during primetime is expensive as are full-page ads in magazines. Then look at the cost of pharmaceutical representatives.
These are the people who visit offices to encourage doctors to prescribe their drug to patients.
These people bring all kinds of goodies to the doctors such as pens, cups, plates or anything they can plaster a logo to.
On occasion, they even bring lunch for the entire staff of the doctor's office.
I know this because my wife works for a doctor and many of the pens on my desk came from pharmaceutical reps.
Figure up the cost of the pens, the lunches, the salaries and the gas to drive around from office to office.
Now multiply that by the number of reps hired by each company.
Whatever figure you have come up with is passed along to the consumer.
I know I sound like your parents or grandparents, but I like being healthy and I like my house.
Is it too much to want to have both?