Last week while serving at a free clinic in Columbus, I confronted a typical, but sad situation. A 66-year-old lady with hypertension could not obtain her medications and could not visit her physician because her assistance check was late; she was poor and broke. As a Medicare patient, she could not pay her deductible to her doctor and did not have prescription coverage. Her physician’s office (at the local state university) suggested she seek help at a free clinic, and thankfully she did.
She had a stroke a year ago: probably hypertension related. She rationed her medications by checking her blood pressure daily and taking a pill when her blood pressure “got too high” (over 180 systolic). She told me she was taking a pill every 2-4 days.
What a broken system! This otherwise healthy woman faces another stroke, simply because she can’t get medical attention and a script for a generic med that costs only $4.00 a month. Treating inevitable stroke will cost tens of thousands!
Physicians need to be more attentive to prescribe generic meds. Her physician treated her with a calcium antagonist, amlodipine, which is not on local generic ($4.00/month) formularies, and therefore she couldn’t afford it.
Physicians can help by prescribing 4.00 generics. A good example is the anti-hypertensive category, ACE-inhibitors. There are many drugs in this class that we can, and should, replace with the generic, lisinopril. The $4.00 list even includes a combination of lisinopril and hydrochlorothiazide. That makes two drugs for 4 bucks a month.
We can save millions of dollars, and many strokes, with simple changes like this.