Where Are My Meds?

"File:Assorted pharmaceuticals by LadyofProcrastination.jpg" by LadyofProcrastination is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

For many, filling crucial prescriptions is neither routine, seamless nor affordable.

Just the day before Thanksgiving, I had to pick up my medications for my heart condition and my diabetes. I had to get my wife to work, buy the groceries, pay off the last of the utility and credit card bills, and then pick up the medications. To put it mildly, I was busy, and I barely had time to eat out because I had no time to eat at home.

After finishing my late lunch, I headed back home to make sure that my insulin and some of the groceries did not spoil because they needed to be refrigerated. I checked everything to make sure that I had gotten all of the medications I needed for the week. Oh no! One of my heart meds was missing.

It was already the early evening, and the pharmacy was closed. Worse, the next day was Thanksgiving, and so I could not call anyone at either the pharmacy or the doctor's office for getting the heart medication I desperately needed.

It was at best a long-shot, but I tried to find a pharmacy, any pharmacy, open. Being in a rural area of Illinois, you can forget 24 hour pharmacies, and those few pharmacies that we have had closed down for the holiday.

As had happened too frequently, the doctor's office miscalculated when I might need my refills, and if I did not check carefully if I got the refills, then I had to get my medications the next day. Normally, even this would not be a major concern. However, it became a problem on a major national holiday, and worse, the one heart medication I needed was not even authorized. So even if I could get to the pharmacy the first thing in the morning, they may not be able to give me the heart medication I want because the doctor's office might be closed for the entire weekend.

Well, this is exactly what happened, so I was doubly screwed.

Under these circumstances, what could I do? I went to the emergency room of the nearest hospital to try and beg for at least one heart pill. Even though I felt fine then, if I did not get my heart medication on time and could not get this prescription filled for two to five days, then my next trip to the hospital would be me being brought to the emergency room on a gurney.

This is not the first time the doctor's office has screwed up the refills I should have gotten. Sometimes I was cut short by a week, and in one extreme case by two weeks. Since I am on a state health insurance policy, my medications had to be filled at a certain time.

In Illinois, the state actually has, in too many cases, a say in how many pills I should get, and the state could actually deny me medications if it was deemed "too costly." And unfortunately, the medical health insurance system might also put the refill date too far ahead of when I really need the refill. So, I have at times not had a refill on my heart or diabetes medications, and I had to go back to the pharmacy to argue about it.

Going to the emergency room of a hospital is both embarrassing and a horrible waste of everyone's time. Thankfully, the hospital doctor at least understood the issue, and gave me a few days’ worth of my heart medication in case I could not get a hold of someone in my doctor's office.

There have been times when I had to go for a few days without my diabetes medications because the health care system miscalculated when I needed my meds refilled. But this was the first time they miscalculated when to refill my heart medications during a major holiday; setting a new low for the health care system in Illinois. How am I supposed to stay healthy and keep up on my medications when I cannot even get them on time or at all? None of this has to do with supply chain issues, either (although in one case with my insulin it did).

Yet for all of the problems I have encountered, I have heard far worse stories. Just about every time I have gone to the pharmacy, I’ve heard other customers complain about being unable to get the medications they needed because they either did not have the money, or they had to be put on long waiting lists for the same kind of insulin that I am on. I saw the expressions on their faces every time they left without what they needed.

Since I am on the state insurance plan, at least I stood a better chance of getting what I needed. I always wondered how many of these unfortunate people may have had to go to the emergency room with real emergencies that could have been prevented in the first place?

It seems since the Affordable Care Act was passed and implemented, a lot of the bugs still remain in the system. This is in part because the Democrats are trying to keep the whole thing intact as the Republicans try to tear it down and put nothing in place of it. But the infighting between the two ruling parties has meant no real improvements have been made in the health care system.

Well, maybe tomorrow I will have a better day at the pharmacy.

Daniel Nardini spent 22 years as a newspaper correspondent for Lawndale News and The Fulton Journal. He has published six books, including his eyewitness account of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, The Day China Cried. He is listed as an Illinois author in the Illinois Center for the Book.

___________________________________________________________

The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.

Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or its members.