Medication Access

    "Establishing the President's Make America Health Again Commission" Explained

    In a Nutshell Trump stated the growing health concerns of the country and plans to use the federal government to “aggressively combat the critical health challenges facing our citizens, including the rising rates of mental health disorders, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases.” Among the plans listed to combat health concerns, the administration wants to produce an assessment within 100 days to “assess the threat that potential over-utilization of medication” and “assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs;” specifically under the “Make our Children Healthy Again Assessment”.

    Why Care Currently the language is aimed at children but this a subject that could concern adult prescription recipients. In the past, Kennedy (current sec. of health) could limit access to these drugs in favor of “experimental treatments” including:

    RisksMany people who use these drugs have been on regiments for years and found stability and productivity in their lives. While therapy can be used to manage behaviors it is often successful by working in tandem with medication therapy. Without proper medication patients risk experiencing worsening symptoms of their chronic mental illnesses and may become a safety risk to themselves.

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    Medication Conservation

    • Hoard your stash:Experts recommend keeping an emergency 90-day supply if able. While this can be difficult for schedule II medications like for ADHD, talk to your prescriber to find out what options you have available.
    • Plan Ahead:Don't wait until you are almost out before trying to get a refill. Allow time for the scramble to find your medication. Put reminders on your calendar and keep track of your supply.
    • See Statuses:Check the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists to make sure it is a known shortage and find out whether there is a timeline on when it might become available again. Also check to see which similar medication might be available. That information is listed under each shortage medication.
    • Location Options:Call around to see which pharmacy has the medication before a doctor sends in the prescription. Sometimes smaller pharmacies can come through; sometimes it's the bigger chains.
    • Brand OptionsAsk your doctor or the pharmacist if a similar medication is available. Sometimes there are subtle differences between formulas of different brand names that people might tolerate as well as what they were taking.
    • Compounding:Sometimes in a shortage, pharmacists can get approval to compound a medication that isn't available another way.
    • Price Overrides:Call your prescription insurance company. We learned there was a price override that Walgreens didn't know about on buying brand-name Concerta because the generic was not available. Sometimes you can get the insurance company to talk to the pharmacy to lower the price. Sometimes you have to fill out paperwork and get reimbursed for the difference between what you paid for the brand name and what the generic would cost you.
    • Look for Deals:If you can't get the price lowered, check for coupons. GoodRx lets you put in the medication and see what price you would pay at each local pharmacy with a coupon. You can then print out the coupon and bring it to the place that has the medication and is the least expensive. Check with the manufacturers. Often they have co-pay assistance programs that can get your payment to $5 or zero. You still have to find the medication, though.

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    History of Control

    Birth Control

    Hormornal birth control was a revolutionary and controversial medicine since it's FDA approval in the 1920s, but birth control has been around since the time of Gen. 38:9-10. Despite methods like the diaphragm being developed as early as the 1830s, government has been actively involved in labeling contraceptives as "obscene material" to limit access.

    While currently there are still legal protections to access birth control, we see a similar story occuring currently with the battle for mifepristone (commonly known as the abortion pill). In 1914 activist Margaret Sanger wrote in her journal "the Woman Rebel" that it would be wise for women to avoid pregnancy in cases of illness or poverty. Despite there being no direct methods for contraception, the NYC postmaster was able to use this law to label her writing as "obscene, lewd, or lascivious". These laws are almost always used as a way to control women in the process of populating a society rather than allowing citizens to make informed and independent decisions.

    Birth control still poses risks especially when it comes to blood clotting. And like any medication, it's important that patients discuss their options with doctors. But we have also seen an increase in discussion on how hormonal birth control can impact other life areas like sexual drive, increase in cancer or attraction to traits of masculinity (my findings do not support these claims). Often times groups will use scare tactics and claim that these pills cause a diverse range of untested issues either unknowningly through absorbed conventional wisdom or intentionally to manipulate others.

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