As someone with Crohn’s Disease, I use a lot of medicine over the course of the year.  Whether it is medicine for my Crohn’s, supplements, other ailments (thanks to CD), or just routine medicine, I spend a lot of money.  Recently, I received a letter in the mail from my prescription insurance saying that I am only allowed to get 90 days worth of a med from a pharmacy and then I have to use their mail order service.

Ok, so let me get this straight.  Instead of being able to go to my local pharmacy of my choice to get a med that I might need right away, I now have to use a service run by an insurance company and wait days to get it in the mail.  REALLY????

I need to say first that this is my own opinion.  I am not speaking on behalf of anyone but myself.

So, when did corporate America start running our healthcare system.  I know it has been going on for a long time..but come on.  Not only can you not see any doctor you want, but now I can’t use any pharmacy I want.  It was bad when HMO’s came around and all of a sudden they started telling you which doctors you can see and not see.  You want to see an allergists?  Well, first go to your general practitioner, have them look at you and then get a referral.   And you can’t just see anyone. No he has to be in our network.  Oh the closest doctor in our network is 30 miles away…we don’t care.  Now they are doing the same with our medicine.

The best was when I needed to get approval to take Humira.  My insurance wouldn’t cover it.  They wanted me to take Methotrexate first.  So an insurance company that doesn’t know me or my history is telling me what medicines to take.  I think not.  And now they are telling me where to get my meds.

What really gets me is what happens when you don’t have any insurance.  Well, then you are screwed.  If you can’t afford insurance, then the drug companies assume you can’t afford the medicine so you’re not getting it.  The same with doctors.  No insurance…we then you can’t afford to see me so I can’t see you anymore.

What happened to the days of house calls.  What happened to “I’ll take whatever you can afford”.  When did doctors stop caring?

Now I know a lot of doctors will be mad at me for writing this..but I don’t care.  I hate that it takes weeks to find a doctor.  I hate that they all work 9-5 Monday thru Friday.  I hate that I have a chronic illness and it is so hard to get treated for it.  I live in a very big metropolis area.  If I find it hard…what do people in small towns do?

We need to start listening to and caring about our sick a lot more. We need to tell corporations…get out of our medical community.