ACA Repeal/Replace: Progressives Face Moral Dilemma

[Warren Dew]

(01-26-2017, 10:59 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(01-26-2017, 10:12 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: The most effective, proven medication for bipolar is lithium, which is less than $20 a month.

Yeah, but my shrink prefers valproate instead which is about the same price. There are of course other meds and the Dr. visits which add to the costs. And... not to mention the fact bipolar really fucked up my career.

With respect to the bipolar, though, it isn't an argument for any form of third party payer, either employer or government.  People can afford $20 a month out of pocket.  And once a mental condition has been identified and a working solution found, one doesn't really need frequent doctor's visits just to renew the prescription; once every three months should be more than enough.

Bipolar is, if anything, an argument against third party payer.  I have a long time friend who is bipolar; she's also now a successful patent attorney with a PhD and a law degree.  When she first went to a psychiatrist, she was diagnosed with depression and put on Prozac, which was then on patent and moderately expensive (several hundred dollars a month).  It took years for her to be switched to lithium, which worked much better for her. Why?  Because there's big pharma advertising money behind patent medicines and the associated diagnoses, so doctors know about them and tend to prescribe them, and there's no pushback from the patients on cost.  This despite the fact that her father was bipolar and had been on lithium most of his life, so the doctor should have known to look into it.

If patients bore more of the costs, they would push back more on expensive medicines, and doctors would mention the cheaper - and more effective - medicines earlier in the process.

I do agree that our present medical system is terrible at identifying and helping people who aren't neurotypical.  What's needed is removal of the stigma for mental conditions - a stigma I really don't understand in the first place - and maybe a culture where annual mental checkups are considered as normal as annual physical checkups.  Then maybe these conditions could be caught earlier in the process and people could more easily adjust.