I was shocked to learn that 30ml of Zofran [vomit medicine] costs 110$. Thankfully, I have medical insurance and it cost me $10 as copay, but it makes me wonder about those who cannot afford medical insurance, or the one’s with minimalistic insurance. Their 3 year old is different from mine? Those 3 year old’s should just vomit till the bug finds it’s way out naturally?


In this presidential campaign, there are a lot of talks around affordability, cutting taxes, filling consumers pockets with more money which they would then use to buy insurance. What about regulating the drug prices in the first place? Or allow drugs to be purchased from outside the country. Having worked for the e-commerce division of a pretty well known pharma company, I know the outrageous margins on these drugs. Agreed, these companies are running a business, not a charity. They have a right to monetize their years of research and operating costs. And make profit. They usually have a 2 – 3 year period before the generic is released and that is their window to monetize. But, what after that? A little googling shows that this drug was first introduced in 1984. Almost 25 years back. And to date it costs an exorbitant 110$? Beats me!

I should probably send in a query to Jack Cafferty from the CNN news room to ask the presidential candidates what they would do about this. But, with my limited not-up-to-date political knowledge, who knows they might have talked about it. One and only one reason I am pro Obama is because he does not carry the burden of knowing how Washington works. He is young and hopefully bring in the changes this country needs.


I am not all for medicine, I don’t give one unless absolutely needed. D vomited more than 5 times in less than 2 hours. She could not even keep water down and the last one had liver bile. A little more than a year back the exact same thing happened and after the bile vomit, she started puking blood stained biles. Knowing the time it takes to see a doctor even in the ER, I wasn’t going to wait this time around. Her doctor was available to see her and sure enough she prescribed the medicine. But, we never got a chance to use it, as she slept on our way back home for more than 3 hours and was just fine when she woke up.

This morning I was going to check the expiry date on the bottle before throwing it out. My eyes popped out when I saw the price. I am almost tempted to gulp the medicine instead of trashing it.

Reminds me of the shocker I felt when I got to read the paper work from D’s delivery. Sure, I had an emergency C. Baby was suspected meningitis at birth and was held in special care for 6 days. Thankfully, the results were negative. At that time, we paid some 400$ copay, 100$ per day of hospital stay. The paperwork they sent us later showed the bill to be 78,000$. SEVENTY EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!! Now, is that some money or what??


We are self employed, which means we are even more messed up. For one, not many are willing to cover us. Two, if they do, they will cover at the most 70%. OR we get insured with a HMO and be stuck with limited options. We chose a HMO insurance and a hospital which is partially funded by the government. This was the only one to cover us close to 100%. HMO’s are also supposed to have lower premium. Sure, we are paying just 1100$ for the 4 of us. With a copay of 25$ for a doctor visit, 10$ for a lab test. Many illness are not even covered.

Which brings me to my cleaning lady. She called in sick a few weeks back. When she did make it, she did not look very well. A little pondering, she says her insurance won’t cover her surgery as this is a pre existing condition. So, she is proscrastinating her doc visit. I did a little math. I pay her[2 of them come] 60$ a visit, twice a month. Multiply by 50 houses at the most. Dividing amongst the 2 ladies, they take home 3000$ a month. This is the best case scenario. She jokingly said, I can own a car, but I cannot afford medical insurance. I don’t have that kind of money to pay for her surgery, but one thing is fir sure. I will not bargain with any of the blue collar workers going forward. I had bargained from 65 to a 60$ when I hired her. I am not going to be able to build a mansion with 10 extra dollars a month. But, she might be able to get pain killers to ease her pain a little bit.

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