In our new series “The Cost of Denial,” NBC News’ Anne Thompson reports on the young man who went to refill his asthma inhaler only to find it unaffordable because it was no longer covered by his insurance. He left the pharmacy with an emergency inhaler that his father says was found empty by his bed.
    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 days ago

      If Joni Ernst is right and we are all going to die, why not take out some of those responsible on our way out?

  • Guidy@lemmy.world
    391·
    3 days ago

    Is America great again yet, assholes who voted for the orange piece of shit?

  • glimse@lemmy.world
    17·
    3 days ago

    My asthma was getting really bad so my doctor prescribed me a series of daily inhalers that were all ineffective at best. Then Symbicort got approved and it worked great for me. He gave me a few samples and then I got a free year of it. After that, my copay was $20…until one day it was $400. I couldn’t afford that and there was no approved generic.

    Struggling to pay to not struggle to breathe takes a pretty significant emotional toll on you. I almost died several times because some useless middlemen wanted to impress their soulless shareholders

  • galoisghost@aussie.zone
    17·
    3 days ago

    I bought one yesterday for $12. The USA is fucked.

    Ok my $12 was for Salbutamol not the Fluticasone/Salmeterol Cole needed, that would have cost me $35 (AUD that is)

    • noride@lemm.ee
      23·
      3 days ago

      It’s even worse than it seems! This is according to his family, who is suing:

      Not only was the price of his normal inhaler jacked sky high without any notice, there were actually several “$5 alternative options” available that neither his insurance nor his pharmacy made him aware of.

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
        11·
        3 days ago

        Yeap after years of getting my scripts filled at CVS or Walgreens, I recently started getting them filled at the hospital i work at. Man, having a decent pharmacist makes a huge difference. The first round of scripts I had filled one of the pharmacists called asking if I needed a specific version of any of my scripts. They ended up switching my thyroid medication that was costing me a ton every month because for some reason my doc had accidentally selected a gel coating.

        If we just allowed Medicare to negotiate pricing with pharmaceutical companies like every other nation with a tax funded medical program we wouldn’t have any of these problems.

      • galoisghost@aussie.zone
        7·
        3 days ago

        I just read an article on People which indicates that he had a $5 copayment alternative, which is the US equivalent of the $12 inhaler I bought, but it wasn’t good enough for Cole he needed a preventer not a rescue inhaler.

        • noride@lemm.ee
          4·
          3 days ago

          Yeah it’s been all over the news for a few days now. Their lawsuit alleges there were actually suitable alternatives but the CVS system did not make the correct substitute recommendation.

          Only parroting what I read though, just to be clear.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 days ago

      They’re the ones involved with this one, but it’s the whole ecosystem of healthcare. The fact that UHG is a vertically integrated monopoly also played a big role.

  • some_guy
    7·
    3 days ago

    Poor people don’t deserve a healthy existence.

    • Repubs. Business people. Monsters.
  • flandish@lemmy.world
    7·
    3 days ago

    reminder to mods: it is not “advocating violence” to say that the shareholders of this company need prison time (proportional to shares owned or position in the org) because they are funding organizations that commit murder for profit. the “violence” here is the goddamn system that allows healthcare to be for profit at all.