I watched a video recently on Senator Susan Collins’ Facebook page. She talked about how she was standing in line at a pharmacy when she heard a conversation between two people who had to decide not to pick up a prescription medication because of the exorbitant cost. She was so upset by this!
I had a similar occurrence that left me scratching my head. I was picking up a tube of Erythromycin at the pharmacy which I expected to cost just a few dollars. When I was told that it was $20+ dollars, I was floored.
Why does it cost so much? I asked the pharmacy tech. She just shook her head and said that’s what it cost. I told her it cost a fraction of that the last time I got it and she said well, that’s what it costs now. I asked her to ring it up using an AARP pharmacy discount card and a GoodRx card to compare the costs, because I was trying to find out the cheapest way to get it.
She resisted me. I had the idea in the first place because another pharmacist had done that for me (at a different store) years ago when the cost of another antibiotic that should have been cheap was not.
In the end, I just paid the too-high price and left, disgusted but grateful that I rarely had a need to purchase prescription drugs.
But Senator Susan Collins didn’t just shake her head and leave. She took action. She wrote the bill that was just passed to remove the ‘gag order’ that prevented pharmacists from telling customers that it might be cheaper for them to get a medication if they did not go through their health insurance.
So, thank you, Senator Susan Collins and all of the other involved parties, including President Trump, for getting this ridiculous, shady rule removed.
The cost of so many prescription drugs is appalling.
Shining a light on the problem is one small step toward change.
Karen Creamer
