Like most elderly
people, I take several medicines every day--for hypertension, arthritis, and
other ailments--and hate to think what life would be without those drugs.
Recently
I learned I have pancreatitis, a painful disease caused by a sluggish pancreas. Just getting the diagnosis took several
months, so finally learning the source of my pain was a great relief,
especially when some samples of Creon (pancreatic enzymes) helped greatly. Then
my doctor broke the news that Creon (manufactured by Abbott Labs) costs up to
$10 per capsule. No generic version is available. As I need four capsules a
day, this drug could cost me nearly $1200 a month, nearly my entire Social
Security income! I do have a good Medicare Part D insurance plan that would
lower the monthly cost to about $240, but even that is a lot of money for me. I
do not qualify for Medi-Cal or other subsidies; the government thinks I have
too much money, which I find amusing. (Most of my retirement savings were spent
long ago for my late husband’s surgeries and hospitalizations—his bills would
have come to more than a million dollars without Medicare--but that’s another
story.)
In desperation, I
plan to order Creon from a drug company in Canada. That is a clunky, slow
process, and possibly a risky one, but it looks as if I can get my medicine for about $50 a month. At
this point, that actually seems like a bargain.
Considering the
enormous amounts that pharmaceutical companies spend on advertising (in JAMA and other medical journals, as well
as those irritating TV ads), I think they can well afford to make needed drugs more
affordable. Luckily, my illness is not life-threatening, but many people
endanger their lives by cutting pills in half, delaying having prescriptions
refilled, and by other cost-saving actions. When will Big Pharma and the
government wake up and realize they may be killing the geese that lay the
golden eggs?
