Thursday, April 26, 2012

Bread or Meds Continued

My Healthcare Insurance Plan Sucks




Welcome to Tenet's Sucky Insurance Plan that Doesn't Take Care of It's Employees.

At the end of last year, Tenet heavily recruited people to it's Health Savings Account Plan.  Every "real" adult who had medical problems complained that the plan was horrible.   I'm now understanding how horrible it really is.

Here's a breakdown of my plan:

These are the medications that my doctor prescribed today:




Grand Total: $3171.60 per Year  

JUST SO I CAN BREATHE!!! 

This doesn't include over the counter Allegra, which I have to take daily.  

I love the farce of the savings:  congrats you save 10-12%

Now, I don't have to pay this in entirety because  I have a $1200 deductible for medical and prescription costs.  This means I pay full price for all medications and services until I meet this amount for the year.   After my hospitalization, I will definitely meet this deductible.  After that, the insurance will pay for 65% of the cost of the medication until I reach a max of $5200. 
Dude, I'm a resident physician.  I am paying back my loans.  I do not have freakin' $5200 extra dollars to spend on medications for my health!

Additionally, PREVENTIVE medications cannot be applied to the deductible.  How much sense does that make?  Every medical economist knows that you save money in the long run when you take preventive medication.  But, I forgot, Tenet doesn't care about the long-term health of its employees. 

Tenet put in $750 for me in an HSA account that can be used on eligible health expenses, ie medications and deductible.  So essentially, the out-of-pocket fee for me will be $450. Then I have to pay 35% of the costs or $690.  So in total, I will have to pay $1139.85 just for my asthma medications this year. 

In summary, Tenet Healthcare takes poor care of its employees.  Don't work for them. 

Bread or Meds?

Backbreaking Costs of Medicine

Being previously healthy, I never needed to take medicine everyday.  Thank goodness.

When I went to the local pharmacy after my hospitalization, here was the bill:



Advair Diskus $193
Ventolin Albuterol Inhaler $36
Prednisone 30 tabs $3.72

My jaw dropped.  The bill was over $200 for one month of meds.  Luckily, I have insurance, but the first thought in my head was, "Is there a different option than Advair?" Even with insurance, a 30 day supply of Advair, a designer medication, is expensive.  How can people without insurance afford this?  Today, I'm going to the doctor.  Let's see what they have to say. 

Clearly, this is why America as a country needs to re-evaluate the underlying values that drive up costs of healthcare.  The overwhelming costs of pharmaceuticals is one huge part of the problem.  Pharmaceuticals spend lots of time on R+D and the FDA have rigorous processes for clinical trials, and then ongoing investigation.  Safety has become such a huge burden that we are missing the forest for the trees.  We spend so much time and money ensuring safety that we are driving up the cost of "safe" drugs. 

Why?  Because the drug company doesn't want to get sued.
 
At the end of the day, Americans need to stop looking to make a quick buck by suing somebody.  All drugs have a monetary cost, and they all have risks and benefits.  As a consumer and a patient, we should be very well aware of the risks and the benefits of these drugs.  You need to understand the effects of the drug, when the maximum effect it will be, and what the risks are. 

We also need to accept the fact that chronic disease is something to be managed, not cured.  
Modern medicine is very good at certain things.  Curing chronic disease is not one of them.  Drugs are intended to help and alleviate symptoms.  We need to accept our fragility.