Aug. 02, 2003 - 23:13 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Pricey

Several days ago there was a column by Cokie and Steven V. Roberts dealing with drugs and the cost thereof.

"By a vote of 243 to 186, with 87 Republican joining the majority, the House passed a bill making it easier to import cheap drugs from foreign countries," it says in the column.

Personal experience had a part in the scheme. "The people in our districts can't afford their drugs," said Jo Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican who help craft the legislation. "Its the one issue I think we hear about more than anything else." Cokie and Steven went on to say, "What really got Emerson involved in the issue was personal experience. Her mother-in-law's drug bills exceeded $1,000 a month, more than half her meager retirement income."

What we are against are Bush and the honest politicians who will stay bought and those that they can strong arm and those who are for sale.

In a way drug companies are in the process of blackmailing the public by, "fiercly opposed by by the drug companies, who say it will lead to unsafe medicines, diminished profits and declining incentives to pour money into expensive research." Cokie and Steven go on to make the following points, "The drug companies derive most of their power from their wallets, however, not their arguments. They contribute heavily, mainly to Republicans, and they're calling in their chits. President Bush opposes the measure and his Food and Drug Administration publicly denounced it."

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Heather and I are a mite luckier that that poor mother-in-law who finally had to go into a nursing home where her savings melted away. We both get Social Security and I get a small pension to boot. We are not able to live super high on the hog but our income is fixed and everything is going up in price. Recently our HMO imposed a $25.00 fee for any procedure, $100.00 to go to emergency (that's just co-pay) and some of their prescription drugs have risen to $10.00 a whack instead of $5.00. (But both prices on prescriptions are for a two month supply of a drug a person takes all the time).

One reason that we are floating is that my company guaranteed my health care after retirement. The catch is that they pay what they decide on, no matter what HMO a person is in. So what the company pays per year determines what our HMO charges.

We, in no way could afford the monthly fee for our HMO let alone our prescription drugs.

Some people we know are not in an HMO or a company plan, I have seen how much they pay for prescription drugs, and it ain't for a two month supply. If Heather and I were in that position, we couldn't afford the medicines we require.

I guess I should have written the sources and dates of articles I have read telling that drugs, made by companies in our country sell much cheaper overseas than here. Some of the international companies do so also, I have read. In the past few months we have had trips to the emergency department, procedures out the ears and innumerable tests. No way could we have afforded paying full market price, doctor's fees ($5.00 per visit) and surgeon's fees and hospitalization.

In a way, think HMOs have kept us pretty well in the dark as to actualities on costs - however I have seen full prices on some prescription drugs.

So now even a chain restaurant we go to has cut the choices on their senior menu while they also raised the prices. They also raised the prices on their regular meals and cut the amount of food on their servings. Heck, if I live another ten years it will be impossible to live, everything will be too Pricey . . . . . . . . .

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