The sheer idiocy of the US healthcare system
I have a cold. I’ve battled it through the weekend. It started to get to me on Friday, and it really hit me on Sunday morning. It’s now Tuesday evening, and while the fevers, sweating and malaise are on their way out, I’ve got a nasty cough, which is only getting worse. The only thing that I know will help me with it (from prior experience) is Tussionex, which, unfortunately for me is deemed a “controlled substance” by the retarded enlightened minds minds of our pharmacological system and the DEA.
What I don’t have is the time or the inclination to waste my time at the doctor’s office. There would be no other purpose for my visit than to get a prescription for Tussionex. None. I’ve been there before. I know exactly what will happen. I’ll make an appointment, which will be days later than I need, show up, only to be poked and prodded by a disinterested nurse’s aid, who will ask me the same idiotic questions that the doctor will also ask me. Why they bother writing them down, and why the doctor doesn’t bother to read those notes, I’ll never know.
The doctor will then spend approximately 3-5 minutes with me, all the while glancing at the clock and trying to appear interested in my well-being, when I can see damn well that he or she couldn’t give a rat’s ass about me or my well-being, and that the only thing I represent to them is 15 billable minutes.
The doctor will then declare that I have a cold (no sh*t, really?) and that I’m coughing (really, do you need a degree for that?) and will agree that I do indeed need a cough syrup, which they will prescribe. Hopefully, it’ll be Tussionex, which so far in my 32 years of existence, has been the only cough syrup that has managed to cure my coughing.
Or, if the doctor is a complete dimwit (and I speak from prior experience), he’ll say, with an all-knowing tone of voice, that the cold and the cough will go away on their own, and that I shouldn’t worry. Then I’ll have to come back in a week or two, in even worse condition, and with a truly horrific cough to boot. Finally the moron he will concede that I need antibiotics and cough syrup.
I’ll then leave after having spent about an hour there, and let’s not forget, I’ll have to cough up my co-pay as well, to an equally disinterested office clerk.
Why this whole idiotic experience can’t be skipped is beyond me. The double gatekeeper model does not achieve its goal of controlling substances. Drug abusers will always be able to get their fix, whether it’s through dealers, or by going to multiple doctors with the same complaint. All this moronic practice does is to slow down people like me from getting the treatment they need.
Heck, any half-intelligent pharmacist can look it up in the system and see that I only need cough syrup about once a year, and that (surprise, surprise) I’m actually coughing and I look sick. And they could also look at the size of the bottle and its ingredients, and know that I couldn’t be able to get my “fix” off that tiny thing. But no, that would require brains, and pharmacists appear to have none.
At least that’s been my experience tonight, when I went to two different CVS pharmacies, only to be met with stern looks from retarded concerned pharmacists, who screamed at me that Tussionex is a controlled substance and can only be gotten with a prescription.
Well, I say they’re morons, and the whole healthcare system is moronic, if this is the end result when someone needs to get cough syrup.
Let’s not forget that opium was sold freely by pharmacists everywhere not too long ago. The pendulum has now swung completely the other way when it comes to common sense (or lack of it) in pharmacology.
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j/k, I like that you tried this… I’ve wondered how well it...
Big government is the problem, and your tale here illustrates but two of the symptoms; a user-unfriendly healthcare system, and the idiotic War on Drugs. Big Brother is “protecting” you from yourself. You may not need their help, but somebody does, so everybody gets the heavy hand of Big Government interference of every facet of their life.
Choose smaller government.
Comment — April 22, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
I can’t take Tussionex, but the one time I tried it the stuff worked - but it made me high! The doc told me that it was an uncommon side effect. Fortunately, I wasn’t driving, but I was in a fencing class. That was … interesting.
Have you tried hot tea with lemon? I mention it because that helps me. I have asthma, and tea or coffee really helps clear the lungs. Caffeine is a bronchodialotor. I’ve also had decent luck with herbal teas in the evening. Don’t know if that will help, but I thought I’d pass it along.
Hope you get to feeling better.
Comment — April 22, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Well, there’s happy ending to this story. I was able to get an emergency appointment at a local doctor’s office, and got a prescription for Tussionex filled this morning. I am now on it, and my coughing will soon go away.
Dave, I couldn’t agree with you more, especially since I never asked the government to protect me from myself. I’d be happy if they were more hands-off, like at the turn of the 20th century. Unfortunately, neither of the political parties will give us a smaller government. We know the democrats love big government. And while the republicans say they like a small government, just look at what happened during Bush’s tenure in office. Government size and expenditures practically exploded, burying us in a ridiculous amount of debt.
Julie, the first time I took Tussionex, it made me “happy”. Not dizzy, not high, just a little happier and more relaxed. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case. I’m on it now and there’s no change from normal. It’s a pity, really. I could stand to be a little happier at work.
Also tried hot tea with lemon, but it didn’t do much for me. Nothing but Tussionex gets at my coughing. I’ve been drinking hot teas all this weekend, without effect. We have this great green tea with triple echinacea, and it tastes great, but it’s not much help when you’re already sick. It’s more for daily health maintenance.
Thanks!
Comment — April 23, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
Glad to hear you got some!
As for me, “may cause drowsiness,” means I’ll be in bed for the rest of the day. Conversely, most decongestants keep me awake. I have to take extra caution whenever I take something for the first time. You probably always suspected I was strange, and now you know it for sure!
Feel better.
Comment — April 23, 2008 @ 4:58 pm