February 16, 2006

Swindled by Pharmaceuticals!
   by jhyde

First off I'd like to say that making money is a grand venture. Making TONS of cash is also a very good idea. Using money to make money, also very good policy. But what happens when greed hits? Greed is what happens when the company that makes Tylenol markets something that's exactly the same as Tylenol, but has a new name. Tylenol Arthritis. Name you can trust: Same damn product. Or take Delsym cough syrup for children. "Hmm, I like Delsym, worked good on me... oh look, there's a product for my child, it's got a 50% markup, but it's FOR KIDS so I should use that." Wrong. They're the same damn product, it just costs more. It's the same thing, just substantially different.

Take Ambien vs. AmbienCR. It's the same medication, and the only reason you might need to take AmbienCR is if you already tried Ambien and failed it (eg. it didn't keep you asleep for 8 hours). Truth is, 99% of people are going to be just fine taking Ambien, yet 45% of the doctors out there are starting to prescribe AmbienCR. They must know it costs the patient MORE. It's very frustrating for consumers out there. We have to be smart, diligent and study everything we buy just to know we're not getting swindled. And even then we're not completely sure, particularly in the healthcare field. I hear this almost every day:

"Well, why couldn't you fill my medication?"

"Because in order for the insurance to pay for it we need a message from the doctor to the insurance company stating that you need it seriously."

"I got a script for it didn't I? Isn't that seriously enough?"

"No."

Even the insurance companies don't trust the doctors that are prescribing meds. It's a check and balance for the medical field, but it's annoying as hell. I do understand the plethora of products out there, but I'd be interested to note just how many different variations of the same product are out there. Are we doomed to repeat ourselves, wasting time and money on frivolous repetitive products that we keep buying because they're "substantially different"? It's a bunch of bullshit. PFFT!

Published: February 16, 2006
Editor: stacy