New Year, New Deductibles
“Your prescription today totals $25.”
“Excuse me?! I’ve always paid $10 for this.”
“I understand. This is the cost that your insurance company is telling us to charge you, and unfortunately, we have no control over it…”
It’s a new year, which in Pharmacyland means fresh deductibles, premiums and co-pays for those of you who are insured. SURPRISE—you get to pay more out of pocket. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. Caught off guard? Of course.
This fad happens in January as sure as snow in Iowa; our patients are under-informed of their cost hikes, whether it is their insurance company’s fault or their employers for hiding the “secret.” The pharmacy intern gets to drop the bomb.
Last month we discovered Blue Cross Blue Shield increased their premiums across the nation, up 39% in California and a whopping 56% in the state of Michigan. Who can stand up to Blue Cross Blue Shield? No one. Thankfully, there is a Goliath in this parable—Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She wrote publicly to BCBS, demanding they defend increasing their prices while their profits lurked around $3 billion last quarter.
Someone has to hold these insurance companies accountable. Health care costs are causing distress for U.S. families, unmarried 20-somethings, your grandparents, their grandchildren. I face it in the form of worried patients every day I punch the time clock.
We cannot continue this trend and something has to change—fortunately this fad has caught on as well. Your legislators do not rest a day without hearing at least a murmur of “health care reform.” The pressure is on.
– Lori Peymann, Guest Blogger
