Comment on They say, "You'll have to wait". It's a bullshit argument against Universal Healthcare.
atearinspace@retrofed.com 5 hours ago
I just had to wait for 3 weeks to get a refill on my daily asthma inhaler, one and a half of them without my meds. There was some sort of supply issue with my regular one, so had to get a new one prescribed. I had to deal with going back and forth with the pharmacy, doc office, and insurance company to finally get the approved brands/prior authorizations figured out. I’m glad my asthma isn’t too bad right now despite being allergy season.
I’m taking a wild guess here, but I’m guessing that folks in places with universal healthcare don’t have to deal with this sort of bullshit.
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Kind of. I’m in Germany (but from the US), and while it’s leagues and leagues better than the US, I recently had a similar issue. I was prescribed a daily generic medication that comes in increments of 100, which had some supply issues. The name brand version comes in increments of 30, so I had to get my prescription rewritten for 90 pills instead of 100, because they couldn’t just dispense less medication than I was prescribed.
I ended up going two days without my medication, but it was still better than in a non universal healthcare system. I used the same medication in the US, and regularly had to skip a day or two around refills, plus I was only able to fill one month at a time and had to pay way more. In the US, I had to pay for: a monthly doctor’s visit, a drug test to make sure I was taking my medication, and a high prescription cost ($50-$330/month, depending on whether I’d reached my deductible and whether it was a generic or not). In Germany, I pay 8.50€/month for the brand name or 10€/3 months for the generic, no cost for doctor’s visits and no required drug test.