But I don't want to take the medicine...

I was on the phone for a good 45 minutes last Friday night, trying to convince an account representative from my online drug company that the best way to save money on my prescriptions was to not buy meds I don't need.

What happened was this...my dr. gave me a prescription for an asthma rescue inhaler, which I really only keep around for psychological purposes, and it was written as a "twenty five day supply". The helpful--but obviously not an asthma suffering--young lady insisted that she could save me $325 a year if I used a generic inhaler rather than the name-brand my doctor prescribed. I had filled this RX at a local drug store instead of mailing it to my online store, because I wanted to take it with me when I went out of town. Where unknown allergens might trigger an attack.

I agreed with the girl, and told her if I needed a refill I would be happy to ask Dr. T to prescribe the off-brand instead of the fancy one. "Let me see if we can get it back-waited" or something to that effect, she insisted and trailed off into a desparate stream of consciousness babble where in she struggled to come to grips with the "but it says 25-day supply" and I was going to RUN OUT REALLY SOON because it had be twenty days. Not listening to me, as I explained I RARELY IF EVER use the inhaler so 25 days-worth was really overkill in the first place. I had to educate this woman on the drug being an INHALER in a cannister with 25-day's worth of puffs. She insisted I needed a 3 month supply of these cannisters (3 refills that equaled 75 days...blah blah...)

She nearly got hysterical trying to find a way to get me 75 doses of albuterol, when I don't really need the 25 I have now.

My point in this story is....this woman had no business advising me on my RX because she neither understood the drug nor my needs. She simply was hired to ferret out drugstore purchases that could be filled by the online store.

Do you want the government taking over your healthcare? Do you want to experience the medical equivalent of a IRS audit?

Hmmm?

I'm just sayin'.