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There have been well-publicized shortages of GLP-1's - the remarkable diabetes drugs that have a side effect of weight loss. Ok, so people will pay anything for weight loss. No big surprise, right? Right.
Except a few months ago, we had a nation-wide shortage of Amoxicillin. I'm not sure why. Now I'm having problems getting heart drugs and insulin for my patients. Nothing exotic. Insulin. I've never seen shortages of anything during my 30 year medical career. But last summer our hospital's radiology department had a problem with their CT machine, and had to wait four months for parts. For a freakin' CT machine. It's nothing exotic - this is basic stuff. We can't keep a CT machine running, and we can't get insulin for our diabetics. This is basic stuff. In America - the greatest health care system in the world. How on earth do we have shortages in such basic necessities? What the #$%& is going on?
I used to laugh at Canada, and France, and the UK. I don't laugh anymore. This is not funny. It's funny when The Department of Education requires trans-sexual education for second-graders. It's funny when The Department of Energy mandates that we close coal and nuclear plants, so we can't charge our electric cars. But when I can't treat my patients for basic stuff, stuff that I know how to treat, that pisses me the #$%& off. That is NOT funny.
What the #$%& is going on?
"Everyone is conservative about what he knows best." - Margaret Thatcher
"Perhaps, if leftism becomes sufficiently ubiquitous, enough people, in enough fields, will wake up enough to resist it. Perhaps." - Dr. Bastiat
"Eh, probably not." - Dr. Bastiat
Discussion (76)
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Pure speculation here Doc.
The lovely Mrs E takes a particular drug that’s been in short supply since 2020 (according to the ASHP website who track these things.)
But…
My employer’s new insurance company mandates that we get our prescriptions from a particular national pharmacy. It just so happens that the pharmacy chain owns the insurance company. That’s a coincidence I’m sure. Since we have signed up for the drugs-by-mail automated refill option there has never been an issue. Ever. My daughter’s employer’s insurance (a different company) also mandates that their participants also use that same national pharmacy. I wonder if there is a bit of hoarding by that pharmacy chain? Their contracts with insurers mandate that people use them. It would be bad business if they couldn’t get something so They might be tempted to have lots of inventory on hand. Pure speculation on my part. But supply shortages are characteristic of monopolies. Makes me go hmmmm.
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Weird.
During the first year or so after COVID hit (so late 2020-2021) I couldn't get one of the meds I take. It's a generic, and fairly common. But it couldn't be found anywhere. I had to ask friends who were traveling to India to bring some back and I would reimburse them plus. They did so and refused any reimbursement. (We did treat them to a few fancy dinners later.) The supply of the med recovered. Now I'm wondering if I should stock up.
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The thing about hoarding medicines to sell is their short sell-by date. It's less likely hoarding as being the preferred customer.
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Cheer up, things are going to get worse.
I realize you don't take Medicare payments, but I'll bet this is going to have a ripple effect (and is itself a ripple from other things). The Biden administration may be planning for this to hit the fan in time for President Trump to take the blame. WSJ article link here.
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I have several drugs (e.g. blood pressure) that I have taken every day for a decade now. I get them from a national drug store chain, and the only problem I ever had was getting a refill on vacation - and that worked once I figured out how to redirect a refill to a store near where I was.
But when Covid came calling, the rigorous and totally predictable schedule of refills got kind of crazy. I never actually missed any refills, but they started arriving at random times, sometimes way before they should. So I had some drugs arriving just in time, and I had surpluses of others. It was all just weird. For the first time ever, I would get an email that told be the drug was out of stock but would arrive 'soon'.
PS: at the height of Covid fear/lockdown, I agreed to have prescriptions delivered. This meant that CVS dropped them into a postal envelope. One day, a refill wasn't delivered on the promised date (and in fact it never arrived). But neither the USPS nor CVS had any interest in this problem (even though CVS had insured it) so I ended up with a temporary refill and I started going back to the store for all future refills.
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