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H the K

Gene wrote:
On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:59:50 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:03:18 -0400, Gene
wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:38:59 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:21:54 -0400, Gene
wrote:

Medicare pays a billion dollars a year for test strips that 20% are
faulty. That's capitalist America at work.

Are the ones from UK or Canada better?
Probably not, in fact, they are most likely the same ones. Thus, the
big issue I have is that all of them were probably made 50 miles from
where I am typing and shipped to the UK and Canada... but they pay
about 50% as much for those items as I do. I always have to stand in
long lines *here* to get the high dollar prescription filled....
So if the bloated US medical system didn't subsidize these things they
might not exist at all?
Bloating sure must incur significant expenses, but why does the VA pay
a different rate than I do?
I assume it is a negotiated price, one way or the other.

And how am I supposed to barter medicines?

Your prescription problem sounds local.
And is probably headed your way. Recently, pharmacies have begun to
keep short hours and close on Sundays. This includes ones in grocery
stores (and there aren't many), Revco, Walgreens, Phar-mor, CVS,
Rite-Aid, Kerr..... etc. Note that the STORE might be open, but the
pharmacy is closed.
I am generally at the store in the middle of the day so what?

My wife and I are gainfully employed in the middle of the day. Only
answer is to do without..... which is what I had to do.

Of it helps them contain costs, that is what you can expect more of
under government managed health care.
You might reach a point where you have to go to a government pharmacy
that is only open 9-5 M-F and there are not very many of them. Ever
been in a state where the government is the only one to sell alcohol?

Sure, I live in one. How do the prices compare?
http://www.ncabc.com/pricing/pricebook.aspx

Open every day 9-9 except Sunday to placate the born again
Christians....

There might only be one state store in a town or even a county.
Publix (grocery store) fills
my prescriptions faster than I can buy my groceries. They also give
you most antibiotics for free.
Here, you aren't getting ANYTHING for free. Last antibiotics I was
prescribed cost ME $25.00 per pill after my insurance paid a few token
dollars.
I know they aren't really "free" but what they are saying is the
generic of the 5 most commonly prescribed antibiotics are so cheap at
the wholesale level that they can give them away to get you in their
store. A shrewd businessman would make the "free" prescriptions take
longer to fill, in hopes you would shop longer.

BTW the other good thing about Publix is they don't try to perpetuate
the mystique of prescription drugs. Most pharmacies try to tell you
this is a complicated process that takes an hour or more. Once your
profile is in the Publix computer they just type in the prescription,
count out the pills and put the label the computer spits out on the
bottle. If you have conflicting drugs, the computer will spit out a
warning right away. I assume it also compares your other prescriptions
and detects "doctor shopping" too but I have never heard of anyone
getting busted but I don't really know any abusers.

This is not much different than groceries.... no mystique, just a very
real need. If you stand at the register with your bread and milk and
there are 20 registers and 2 checkers, you are likely to get ****ed
off and leave. You are much less likely to do that with the kid's
whooping cough prescription... and they all know it. How do I know?
Because I walked out of about 4 pharmacies, before I realized they
were all following the same business model. I was going to wait for
the better part of an hour WHEREEVER I was...

Find a better store.