She was old, maybe in her late seventies and tiny, like she had not gotten enough to eat when she was small. The osteoporosis was apparent in the hump under her well-worn coat. Her glasses were thick and her fingers knotted. She dropped her bag while waiting for the pharmacist to bring her prescription bag and seemed so grateful when I picked it up for her. The pharmacist looked at the slip stapled to the paper sack and her lips set in a grim line.
“Mrs. Powers. Do you know how much this costs?”
“Well, no. Is it expensive?”
“It’s $263.00.”
The old woman clutched her chest and asked in a shaky voice, “What about my insurance?”
“Medicare only covered $30.00 of this”
“But that’s a third of my benefit check. I can’t pay that much.”
The old lady walked out of the drug store shaking her head and muttering, without the medication.
I thought about that poor old lady throughout the day. I wondered what the drug was and if not having it meant that she would be in pain or get sicker or lose more mobility. I wondered if not having the medication would put her in the hospital or in a nursing home or destroy the quality of her remaining days. I wondered if the executive of the blood sucking pharmaceutical company who decided how much to charge for that drug would have cared at all.
I worry a lot about insurance. I have two kids who depend on state sponsored insurance for medication that keeps the alive and gives them both a decent quality of life. It is easy to preach about Darwinism and write off those who are cursed with an unfortunate gene sequence but the reality is, it could be any of us, any time, who find ourselves ill. In an effort to keep myself as well as possible, especially as I am no longer 21, I take supplements every day and I also take steps to keep myself as fit a possible. Being ill or out of shape will make any crisis much more difficult, not just for you but for the family who has to care for you. I am hoping for another good 25 years of productive life and a few more to sit on the deck and watch the birds go by while I bore my grandchildren with stories of the old days when everybody drove private cars whenever they liked and ate strawberries in January.
I eat a very good diet. Fortunately, thanks to the greenhouse I can get leafy greens several times a week. Because of the freezer and the root cellar, I eat cruciferous vegetables often. We eat almost no red meat. We eat a lot of whole grains and a ton of orange vegetables. Ido eat more sugar and fats than I should as I love to bake and we can’t get the cow to give skim milk. It doesn’t help to skim off the fat if you then use it to make decadent mashed potatoes and creamed soups.
I prefer to get my vitamins and minerals from my food but there are some things I know I need that my food does not supply enough of. I live in the Northeast so I take a vitamin D supplement as we don’t get reliable sunshine here in the winter. I also take calcium as I am small, slender, blonde haired and blue-eyed and have already broken a couple of bones. I take fish oil for brain and heart health and lutein as I have an early macular degeneration. I take a good quality multivitamin too and I take zinc and C during cold season. I try to buy my vitamins when I find a BOGO deal or when I have a coupon. I walk a lot and I am active anyway. I sometimes have trouble sleeping but I try for 8 hours a night. I don’t smoke and I never drink to excess. I have just given up drinking coffee as I like it with cream and sugar and I don’t need the fat or the calories. The cost was also an issue. Buying shade grown, free trade was expensive. I would rather just do without. I had a couple of days of headaches while my body adjusted but I find I am sleeping better without it. I switched to green tea which has important health benefits and I only miss the coffee on occasion.
Even with all of this and living in a place with clean water and wonderful air quality, I know that disaster could strike at any time. I tend to think we are all too reliant on societal safety nets but it seems as though there are a few things we ought to be able to count on when we get old. We should be able to keep our homes. We should be able to put food on the table. We should be warm enough. We should have access to health care. Is that really asking too much in the country?
November 18, 2009 at 8:30 am
I once went to pick up meds and the pharmacy tech must have not been able to find our insurance in her system so when I went up to pay, another tech rang me up for the price without coverage.
The lady behind me in line gasped when she saw the total cost and I just started laughing out loud (knowing we were covered).
The cost of that med, when not covered by BCBS, was $1,600 for one month’s supply.
The lady behind me had a better day because she saw how much worse it could be. I helped the tech find my insurance.
That was then, this is now.
Our children are, thankfully, on MassHealth, and most of their meds are covered.
That $1,600 med? DD is prescribed it but its not covered.
My DD is now unable to get the meds she needs because of the rules against covering this WIDELY used drug – when both parents are long term unemployed how can u afford $19,200 a year for meds?
I am betting if we went to Mexico or Cuba or Canada – the same Rx would be like 5 cents.
Thank goodness we are not febrile little old ladies and this med is only something that helps her be rational versus something that keeps her from dying.
This country not only fosters a draconian for profit medical industry (not the docs, the HC Execs) it also allows MILLIONS of families and children to go painfully hungry every day.
We are a deeply broken society that has a VERY long way to go to sanity.
You and I are both messengers and walkers in the Permaculture spirit, we know precisely how and why there is a better way.
In making my homestead and my permacultural eden for my kids, I also know we are living in a country that has tremendous selfish and unconscious momentum.
Can I add a bit of happy news on the side?
I have been racking my brain for ways to begin to relocalize more of my food but in a way that involves my local neighbors! (I can have a paradise in my backyard but its tiny against the world).
Yesterday we FINALLY got the convo going with a neighbor who has pasture across the street from us. We proposed to set up a community dairy cow which will graze and live on this land and we care and milk it and the neighbor shares in the fluid bounty. This land borders on another neighbor who has a barn right there (also some arrangement with 1st neighbor that requires 1st neighbor to check in with the 2nd neighbor about this arrangement)
I am hoping we can barter this 2nd neighbor into the arrangement such that we three are sharing this cow (will be a jersey).
I get to have organic raw pastured cream and butter (some milk, remember we also have a herd of goats) and I get to build my neighbors into a tighter relocalized food network.
November 18, 2009 at 9:52 am
Have you read “Nourishing Traditions,” by Sally Fallon or “Real Food,” by Nina Planck? The books are somewhat controversial in their rallies against “politically correct nutrition,” but incredibly interesting. Both authors claim, quite persuasively, that our bodies need “old-fashioned animal fats” (whole milk, not skim! chicken skin and not just the white meat! butter!) and that we should be anti-polyunsaturated fats – but not anti-saturated fats. All I know is that since we replaced all our low fat dairy with full fat, we feel much better, more sated and less likely to snack on simple carbs, we’ve dropped a few pounds, and my cholesterol was way down at the last visit. Again – not everyone buys it, and Nina Planck’s anti-vegan stance has angered not a few folks – but it makes a lot of sense to me. So go ahead, Kathy – make those decadent mashed potatoes all you want!
November 18, 2009 at 11:24 am
As i have shared with you earlier, my son died with brain cancer at the age of 4. He was a patient at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the treatment was amazing. The day he was diagnosed they started helping us with regards to financial assistance. Treatment would be radiation and chemo. I remember fighting with the insurance company over the chemo. Somedays we wouldnt know if the next day he would get it. I never realized that there were people that would rather save a dollar than treating a little boy with such a devestating disease. As it turned out he was able to get all his chemo, but as a parent fighting for my childs life worry about getting his meds was criminal.
November 18, 2009 at 12:59 pm
First of all, Shannon: ((((hugs))))
And Kate, I totally, totally believe what you’re saying! I think we have to be sensible (I could LIVE on fried chicken with the skin!), but I think a large part of the obesity problems now are related to pseudo-foods. If our bodies don’t recognize what we’re eating (pseudo-food), it’s no wonder we stay hungry all the time!
November 18, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I think you get a group hug from all of us here Shannon. It certainly does put our problems into perspective.
November 18, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I am so sorry, Shannon. My best friend’s 16 year old son is currently battling a brain tumor. He had his surgery, and today is his first post-op MRI to determine the future course of treatment. I can barely breathe from thinking about them.
Obviously, this is the biggest trauma she has ever had to deal with, but my friend continues to feel incredibly blessed – by her friends, faith and family, who do not fail her, and by her husband’s top-notch insurance, which has been paying for every test and procedure without a hassle. It is unthinkable to her that any parent should ever be faced with stress from an insurance company while undergoing this kind of ordeal. Unthinkable.
Blessings to you, Shannon.
Kate
November 18, 2009 at 3:02 pm
*hug to Shannon*…Health Insurance is one of those things that makes my head hurt to think about. I have some very mixed feelings about it. We have good insurancethrough my husbands work, but any of the current bill would raise therate $5000 per year. Without insurance, we’d be in the hole if we kept our meds. However, those same meds are a quarter of the price else where in the world, not because of government intervention but because of the lack of it. I long ago made up my mind that the elderly deserved to be taken care of; but to take care of someone who doesn’t even want to take care of themselves? It’s a hard problem and I honestly don’t know what should be done to solve it.
November 18, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Thanks for the hugs, and Kate, I will keep your friend in my prayers.
November 19, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Yeah! How dare those pharmacutecal and insurance companies make a profit! They should all charge for their products and services a fixed price deemed ‘fair’ by the Obama administration. Or better yet, give them away for ‘free’ so that everyone could enjoy them. Oh wait… then they would be out of business and no one would be able to get their medications. Government the answer? I think not; they can’t even get their accounting right. Just look at all the inconsistencies in the stimulus ‘transparency’. I thought this was a self-sufficiency blog. Apparently it’s a ‘gimme free stuff’ blog.
November 19, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I beg to differ. Self-sufficiency does not preclude compassion for people who have spent a lifetime working and deserve better than to die in pain. I believe that we can do better. Forgive me for not worrying about the ability of a pharmacutecal company to make money as much as I worry about an 80 year old being able to put food on the table. I hope we can agree to disagree. I appreciate the views of all who visit here. We all have much to learn and much to teach. I hope you return.
November 21, 2009 at 10:47 am
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