Rationing Begins: States Limiting Drug Prescriptions for Medicaid Patients

We all need to self-limit our prescriptions. Patients come in demanding pills for thngs which they really don't need if they bothered to wait (in the case of a virus), if they improved their eating and exercise, or if they tried natural cures first. Nope, they want instant cures and so now we are to the place where doctors prescribe unnessesary meds for just about every stubbed toe entering the building. The problem is, these meds cause other issues and the patient goes in and gets another pill to take care of that issue which in turn causes another issue. There's nothing like some old fart who takes 12 pills a day. Well, I might die young, but my system will not be filled with pharmaceuticals. Although it's not just the old people - as a teacher I see kids on 5 or 6 heavy-duty meds and the poor child can barely function. Magic Pills

We all need to self-limit our prescriptions. Patients come in demanding pills for thngs which they really don't need if they bothered to wait (in the case of a virus), if they improved their eating and exercise, or if they tried natural cures first. Nope, they want instant cures and so now we are to the place where doctors prescribe unnessesary meds for just about every stubbed toe entering the building. The problem is, these meds cause other issues and the patient goes in and gets another pill to take care of that issue which in turn causes another issue. There's nothing like some old fart who takes 12 pills a day. Well, I might die young, but my system will not be filled with pharmaceuticals. Although it's not just the old people - as a teacher I see kids on 5 or 6 heavy-duty meds and the poor child can barely function. Magic Pills

reply to post by mjfromga


Honest question.

Is this then, a justification of rationing?

Good.

On top of all the health issues, addiction and dependency issues with prescription drugs, there's also the fact that we have hundreds of thousands of medicated zombies on our roadways every day, putting all of you and myself at risk. Anyone else notice how as the number of people on prescription drugs has increased over the last decade, the amount of people who appear asleep or drugged at the wheel is becoming more and more common, as in I see it every day?

Driving around on a few valiums or vicodins is no different than driving around with a few cocktails in your system, yet people do it without thinking twice, at all hours of the day, to and from work, and we're all at risk because of it. Not many follow the suggestion that if you take various pain or other medications that you shouldn't drive. People who use these regularly need them to get through the day and get through work.

Addiction to these meds is terrible. Handing them out like candy to our children is terrible. People using them as a cruch instead of dealing with the problems head on, in a more natural way, such as diet and exercise along with something like yoga, is terrible as well. The cost of meds in the first place is a ripoff suited for big pharma. But what often gets left out of the conversation is all these medicated zombies behind the wheel which I see every damn day.

You;re not supposed to drink and drive. You're not supposed to smoke a joint a drive. So why do we keep seeing all these people popping their meds and driving through school zones to pick up their kids, while texting often times mind you. Maybe if you're on meds daily you should be required to have a higher rate of auto insurance, but limiting the flow of meds is a great idea as well. Our civilization has gone thousands of years without needing prozac and valiums every day, yet now we're to a point people can't get off them long enough to drive sober to pick their kids up from school.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by mjfromga

 

Honest question.

Is this then, a justification of rationing?

Absolutely not. Medical care should be between doctor and patient and the government should stay out of it.

What the government should do is provide a system of healthcare videos which promote preventative medicine and to give natural ways to treat various conditions, such as high blood pressure, colds, ringworm, gym warts, etc. If people were able to try home treatments before going to the doctor and getting pills, we would have a healthier population. They also need to let people know that meds do have side effects and that sometimes the side effcts are worse than the actual condition.

We have to do something, however. It's not just the elderly who are overmedicated - it's our entire population. Many people are really having a difficult time functioning these days.

reply to post by mjfromga


The worst thing that ever happened to healthcare was the moment when big pharma was permitted to advertise in consumer magazines and run ads on television, and sponsor teams and NASCAR drivers...etc etc Big pharma began selling to the consumer and not the doctor. Doctors just get free samples and box lunches for their staff nowadays. The cost of doing business skyrocketed for these companies at their own hands only to be passed on to the consumer.

The whole notion of prescribed medicine is out of balance when the patient tells the doctor what medicine they think they need. Dr. says to patient... try these samples and tell me how you feel in a week....

Dont get me wrong here.....those who are in need should get drugs.....that said...this may be a blessing in de skies.....as my mpom used to say while looking piously upwards....
The Second world war ended withthe people of Europe having been on near starvation rations for several years even in some places...
To the surprise of the medical profession...the Europeans had substantially lowewr heart problems than their better fed counterparts...
I believe that medicine is too easily obtaied for little or no reason other than to contribute to the wealth of those who administer it.
Thus we are far too over medicated in the first place.....
mabe the stricter control of pharmecutecals will create less depeendancy upon the magic bullet.......the golden pilll......the miracle cure.
And as the country is being set up to certainly pay through the nose for nutritious food in the next decade well all loose some wieght too....

reply to post by jibeho


States have been doing this for a long time. Texas use to allow only three medications, which is fine if you are otherwise healthy and only need acute care. But those people who have chronic serious illnesses should not be rationed. Also, the insurance companies do a lot of rationing too. They arbitrarily decide what medicines they will pay for under Medicaide and it is different for every state and every insurance company.

What really pisses me off the way in which the DEA now controls the medicines that people can have, medicaid, medicare or private insurance. My husband has a broken back. There is no treatment and his pain and symptoms will only increase with time. Because of the pill problem in this country he must now go pee in a cup once a month. He has never abused his pain medications and has worked very hard to control his pain through other means. But still, as a long time patient, with a debilitating injury; a person for whom there should be no question of need or use, he is being punished. Oh, and we are left holding the bag for the gas money and my time off from work to take him to the Dr once a month.

read the list of states.

all but one are republican. republicans said the old and sick should die. now they are proving it.

reply to post by getreadyalready
This is one of the downfalls of Obamacare. I'm 50 years old, I don't have diabetes, I don't have high blood pressure - I need hospital insurance if I get in an accident. I don't take prescribed meds, I don't see a docter every month, or even every year, but I have to subscribe to a plan that covers transgender surgery, ob care, diabetic care, ect.

There are people that society has moral obligation to care for - people who have illness through no fault of their own. But, when medicaid comes with a monthly check for things like ADD, just send your child to school and have them act out. You get ritalin and a monthly check for a "disabled" child.

It would be nice if our government was honest and did a survey of how many inner-city kids have an "emotional disorder" and along with medicaid, free drugs, no responsibility for their abberant behaviors, and a monthly welfare check, get subsidized housing, food stamps, ect......

There are children and parents that need this, but it is handed out like candy.

And we are all paying for it. Along with the many arrests, convictions, "mental health" hospitaliztions.

I work at a state mental facility - most of our "clients" are these "kids". There's nothing psychiatrically wrong with them, it's a battle to send them to prison when they become of age, after living their lives just acting out.

reply to post by beezzer


No, they shouldn't ration healthcare for needed things, but that's what they're going to do. Social Security and medicare for the retired is going broke. They intend to cull the herd by killing off "old" people and costly cancer care, and then continue to ration care to the incoming bunch of younger people.

It's very interesting that they haven't come out with protocolf for premie babies, Obamacare will, after the communist are re-elected. You can bet they are just going to let them die.

Don't confuse the liberals with the natural order of things though.

reply to post by mjfromga

as a teacher I see kids on 5 or 6 heavy-duty meds and the poor child can barely function. Magic Pills

Pay attention people.....I am not sure how many of you are aware of what they are doing in the schools, but, according to legislation passed decades ago...eventually the schools will have medical facilities on-site....by passing the parent altogether.

Originally posted by jibeho
For those who said this would never happen.... Really? Still want to defend that statement

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am glad this is happening.

See, before they were not covering this # at all.
Now that they are, they cannot cover it all.

You are upset more people will get medication they cannot afford to buy?
That really bothers you?

I fully agree that we need to address the current situation so we can build a better system. However, at least Obamacare does SOMETHING. It seems that the loudest naysayers would prefer that we do nothing to assist with what is possibly the biggest problem facing our nation. Healthcare. This issue will not just go away so. From my perspective the largest reason healthcare costs are so ridiculously high isn't because people are unhealthy. It is because health care is too expensive. Why does an MRI cost $5000?? Why does it cost $30,000 dollars to visit a hospital for 10 hours?? Both of those examples are personal experience. The only reason that happens is because the price of business for a hospital is insane.
I used to work in the medical device industry manufacturing joint replacement products and instrumentation. The mark up from our company to the Ortho companies is anywhere from 80% to 300% depending on the type of product. That means a spinal screw that we had manufactured $2.50 sold for $ 6.85. The Ortho companies sell the same screw for around $24. Huge mark up for a 2 dollar screw. That isn't even close to the worst. The surgery for a 4 level spinal fusion is around $70,000. That is only 4 screws and 2 plates. The plate costs the Ortho about $50 each. There is also two spinal cages involved for about 250 each. That is $96 in parts.What is the other 69 grand for? Hospital stay for up to 3 days? 69 THOUSAND DOLLARS??? You could go to aspen for a month on that.
The point is, until we regulate cost we will NEVER get healthcare under control. There is no other reason for medical devices and pharmaceuticals to cost what they do other than profit. HUUUUGE profit. Billions and billions of dollars profit. For example, the Spinal Industry is approximately a 450 BILLION dollar industry and only makes up approximately 5 10 ten percent of the orthopedic industry.
As a side not and a very minor out for the ortho industry. One of the reasons costs are so high is the cost of getting meds and devices approved for the sale. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT makes approval so difficult, expensive, and time consuming that companies charge outlandish prices to make it worthwhile. So, you see, it comes full circle. The very same band of jackholes who are complaining about healthcare costs are one of the biggest reasons for it..

Sorry. Seems rambling to me but I had to leave the insanity of that industry because I couldn't stand the hypocrisy.

Source: 20 years as a quality inspector > quality engineer > quality director for Joint replacement manufacturing and then Spinal. I was a large contributor to submissions to the FDA for approvals.

reply to post by Happy1


Again, that is stupid and not going to happen. Stop making crap up because you don't agree or more to the point don't understand something. There are no death panels. The system isn't designed to allow "old people" to just die off. That is stupidity in the highest form.

This is for medicaid, as we know medicaid is for those that can not afford to pay for private healthcare and do not quailify for medicare or are on emergency and disable,Yes, they can ration medicaid in the states, the elegibility varies from state to state.

The problem is that in todays US of welfare class this entittlement program has grown too big to support when is only for emergency purpose only.

Medicaid does not provide medical assistance for all people with limited incomes and resources. Even under the broadest provisions of the Federal statute (except for emergency services for certain persons), the Medicaid program does not provide health care services for everyone. You must qualify for Medicaid. Low-income is only one test for Medicaid eligibility. There are other established thresholds that vary state by state that must also be met.

.

www.medicaid-options.com...

reply to post by Hawkmoon1972


The only reason healthcare is a problem in the US is because is run by big pharma and private insurance the top two pimps in Washington paying the whores in congress, America is all for profit nation and that includes healthcare.

Obamacare is not going to fix nothing as the program just sold US hard working class to private insurance, things are going to get worst much worst.

In America nothing is for free, as usual somebody will pay for the benefits of those at the top and the very bottom

Now, do you know where you will be in the sandwich? of Obamacare?

I'll tell you... a lot of those RX's are demanded by the folks on Medicaid that watch all those Drug commercials on the flat-screen TV''s that got bought during the annual Black Friday sales day. ~professional & generational welfare recipients are a sizeable majority of the state medicaid demographic.

my idea would be to limit the prescriptions to those that never contributed to the social-economic paradigm....
but to the under paid toiler/laborer that files & pays weekly payroll taxes...let them have 5-6 RX's under the Midicaid program
but anything more than 5 or 6 drugs would then require a co-payment of some percentage by that person, that would show a kind of reward for being a productive citizen who probably needs the Meds because of the demands of the work they are lucky enough to have.

relevent:

content.healthaffairs.org...

almost all states have implemented one or more strategies aimed at managing prescription drug use or curtailing wasteful and ineffective use.

Cost sharing (that is, copayments) is one of the oldest and most prevalent forms of utilization management (UM), but a variety of other methods are increasingly being used
These include prior authorization, preferred drug lists, dispensing limits, mandatory use of generics, and step therapy.2
Many states have also tried to contain costs by reducing their reimbursement to pharmacies, negotiating supplemental rebates with manufacturers, and monitoring high-cost users and prescribers of drugs. ...

? the emphasis is mine... the monitoring of high cost users & prescribers is most likely searching for the oxycontin and hydrocodin abusers on both sides of the RX... No relevancy will ever be exposed as to anything that is 'Politically incorrect' to mention ~~~ because that might point out that those individuals are most likely Democrat voters being massaged by U-Kno Who~~~


there are no perfect answers...but the Øbama-Care hangman's noose is just not an adequate law in my book
~still waiting on the Catholic hospitals to slam their doors shut because of the Marxist ACA~

reply to post by marg6043


I have been in all locations in the sandwich at one time or another. Top, middle, and bottom. Hate to break it to you, it all works out the same. If you have a lot of money you pay high premiums for great insurance, if you have some money you pay high premiums and big co-pays, if you have no money you are at the mercy of what you can get, which contrary to many on this site's belief, isn't much. The added bonus of being at the bottom is dealing with collections agents and having to open bills you know you can't pay. And, If you have never been in a situation where you had to choose between paying a medical bill or feeding your family you don't get to have an opinion.

The bottom line here is that Obamacare ISN'T going to magically solve this problem. It is, however, a step in the right direction. At least something is being started that could lead to the kind of healthcare we need.
I'm not sure why people are so against socialized medicine. It can only benefit our country. Is it expensive? Of course. So is fighting numerous wars and I don't see you complaining about that. It is amazing to me that we spend TRILLIONS upon TRILLIONS of dollars on death and destruction of brown people but the moment someone tries to spend it on making our countrymen and countrywomen healthy people get up in arms. It is a sad day when you realize you are more in favor of murder and destruction than you are of the health and well being of our people.