I used to have a pen pal in Ireland. We would get on yahoo chat at 11 when I got home from work and she was just getting up to get the kids and husband off for the day. One night she told me that she thought she had pneumonia and had gone in for a chest xray. I told her good, she should know whether or not she has it in 24 hours or less. She told me, no, no, it would be AT LEAST a week or more before she got word. Her husband, who had Crohn's disease had to have a complete removal of his large colon done. Afterwards she told me that he had to go back into the hospital for removal of his lower intestine and rectum as he was bleeding. Sounded like an emergency to me? Nope, he was on a waiting list and kept getting bumped back.
That is why people come across the border from Canada to have surgeries done in the US. Every garden has a serpent.
As for generics, what figures in to the outlandish prices of drugs are the advertising costs that go into every drug made. More than once we have been to our dermatologist's office and seen a 'jobber' (drug rep) come in and following them (you can always tell them, ladies dressed in big city clothing, expensive haircuts, perfect figures, perfect faces, men who look like they have stepped off a cover of GQ, expensive suits, perfect smiles, tans, the works) and following them will be a caterer bringing in lunch for the staff. KA-CHING! is usually what I whisper in my husband's ear. Having worked in the medical field we saw it every day.
And those salaries/expense accounts are being paid by who? The consumer who buys the drug that is prescribed to them.
Many of the meds used in veterinary science are made by the same manufacturer as those made for humans. If you ever buy a bottle of fish flox ciprofloxacin, look it up in a PDR or on line on a site for IDing pills and compare it with one you get from your local pharmacy. I have. Same coding on pill, same size, shape and mg dosage. Slap a picture of a fish on the label and you can charge a fraction of what you will pay for it at a pharmacy for a human.
Is it the same standard? All I know is the pills look the same down to the coding stamped on the pill. Your guess is as good as mine but a difference that makes no difference is no difference.
@bruceha2000. Yes, I still use flonase. I get one bottle a month from the pharmacy that has a low copay on it through medicare and buy generic on line from either Wally World or
Amazon. I think
Amazon has beaten my pharmacy a couple of times but not lately. Still the price is close enough that I can keep a few extra on hand for emergencies.
I'm seriously considering a Costco membership.
