Teacher Dies From Flu Because Medicine Was Too Expensive

Post Reply New Topic

Conservatives Right Now: "She was just a parasitic, useless slacker and now she's burning in Hell!"

https://www.snopes.com/heather-holland- ... -medicine/

Looks like she could afford it but just didn't want to spend the money for it because she didn't like the price. Her husband bought the medicine when he found out she refused it.

That medicine is $56 locally, without heath insurance. She was just cheap and stupid... She had health insurance, it wouldn't have cost that much. But I'm not going to speculate on that cost, not knowing her policy details.

EDIT: $116 copay, for a drug cheaper when paid cash and shopping around. Sounds like her insurance was screwed over by the ACA... I found myself paying more of pocket as it was cheaper for little stuff then to go through my insurance; such as therapy and basic prescription medicine last year.

In a way I respect her refusing to pay out of principle that people are being ripped off for prescription medications.. but on the flip side, if it's pay & take this medicine or risk dying, well, I'd open my wallet and pay. Most people would. That's how insurance companies thrive.. people are willing to pay any amount of money to be healthy/stay alive. If it's a matter of minor discomfort vs. expensive medication, that's a different story.. but death? I'll pay the $116/whatever.


Also, I know people die of the flu.. and I must have had the flu a dozen + times as a kid during flu season, but I don't recall EVER having a prescription antiviral for it. Ever. I just asked my mother and she said no, and that she hasn't either. (She's gotten the flu shot in recent times, I never have.) We only ever took some tylenol or whatever and let it run it's course and got over it. Sooooo it must be exceedingly rare that when people get the flu that their symptoms are bad enough to warrant a prescription antiviral & doctors do so when it's likely you could die if you don't take the meds? Or do people in the USA get prescribed antiviral flu medication every time they come down with the flu?

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

The article didn't say whether or not she was vaccinated (I'm assuming she's not?)

the amuuurican "health care system" is not particularly healthy or caring, nor is it even much of a system.

Problem is, the vaccine is quadrivalent (immunizes vs. 4 strains) and only about 30% effective against H3N2 which is the really bad actor this season. That's per the CDC, they 'fessed up this past week about it.

I'm old enough to have been given Symmetrel (amantadine) for the flu once, years back. As I recall it did tiddly-boo.

Unfortunately, this poor woman picked the wrong time and place to take a stand on drug costs.

she's in heaven now, so let us pray for the survivors.

^^ I know right? But many doctors from Canada go to work there because that's where the real money is.

My mother hardly ever gets a cold, let alone the flu, but she got her flu and pneumonia vaccines last month. Better safe than sorry. I worry about my dad a lot more because of his COPD.

my point was that the damage is done [she's gone] but her survivors are still hurting.

Universal health care countries have co-pays too, or even worse ....

With regards to Canadian health care .... "Though medicines used in acute care hospitals are 100% publicly financed—in accordance with national standards of the Canada Health Act—there are no national standards for the coverage of prescription drugs outside of hospitals in Canada. As a consequence, prescription drug coverage in Canada is offered through a patchwork system of private and public drug plans that varies considerably across the country and leaves many Canadians with little or no drug coverage at all"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5094297/

Seems like she might be worse off with "universal health care".

Part 1 of 2:

Actually, the reality on the ground is just a teeny bit different.

The importation of drugs from Canada to the US, for cost containment, has been blocked by PhRMA (the US drug industry lobbyists) for years. They insist Canada's QC is inferior, which is a laugh, because many drug firms have manufacturing facilities in Canada and routinely import products from these sites for sale in the US - with FDA approval to do so.

And did I mention that Canada's GMP requirements (that's pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices) are more stringent than those of the USA?

Here's a bit of information from the Regulatory Affairs Professionals' Society about Canada's pricing system. (That's drug (and biologics) and device regulators, and the organization is international). It's a bit geeky, but the bottom line is that Canada has been looking at US drug prices as a comparator for cost containment, among others, and now intends to drop the US comparisons and look at a wider cross section of countries' prices. Because using the US as an index has resulted in systematic overpricing in Canada.

Part 2:

As for drug price controls in the US, that's where we have the real pastiche, and the worst gouging in the world.

Drug price controls are negotiated in the US by the DOD, the VA, and the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).

If you're not active duty/family, vet in VA healthcare, or a Medicare/Medicaid recipient*, your drug prices will be controlled, to whatever extent they are, by your insurer. That's where the craziness comes in, because insurers are for-profit entities. And that craziness is the main reason that people are advocating Medicare For All.

*this worked much better before Medicare was "reformed". As usual.

The Bezos-Buffett-Dimon initiative to reduce healthcare costs is quite exciting. See this article in Forbes for more detail:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapse ... 50c31341c0

amuuurican righties never tire of telling falsehoods about other nations' universal health care, and making up positive stories about our own dysfunctional medical delivery system, all the while discounting the many cases of working class here priced out of coverage/treatment, dismissing the working poor as "degenerates" undeserving of any health care.