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Stung by Cost of Medicine

Instead of making fixes to our national healthcare, politicians are spouting ideological support or opposition to solutions

By Mike Jopek

I reached into the mature plant to feel how full the tomatillo husks were and immediately felt the fire of the yellow jacket sting, as it suddenly clung to my right arm. It was my second sting of the season.

The first wasp stung me on the tip of my ear and it hurt like heck. This recent irritation was on the tender portion of my arm. This morning it itched intensely. For me, it’s a hot annoyance.

For anyone with severe allergies, it’s a life emergency.

People with severe allergies often carry epinephrine autoinjectors or EpiPens to treat anaphylaxis with life saving adrenaline.

A mere decade ago these life saving EpiPens cost less than $100 per two-pack. Today it costs nearly $500 and is expected to climb to over $600. Epinephrine says it expires in about a year, leaving those with allergic reactions to things like bees or peanuts little choice but to buy new life-saving devices.

More than 65,000 people in Montana have been diagnosed with diabetes.

People who recently paid $200 for life-saving insulin are suddenly finding themselves paying up to $500 for the same amount of essential medicine.

For those affected by metabolic disease, it’s not simply high blood sugar, it’s life or death. The disease can cause blindness, strokes, amputation and death.

Last year in Montana, nearly 3,000 people rode an air ambulance, often to save a life. A Butte mom took her 2-month-old daughter 600 miles to a hospital to tend to a failing heart. The mom’s bill was over $55,000.

Montana is a rural state. Some years back a railroad engineer told me that travel across the high line of Montana was greater in distance than the rail from Chicago to Washington D.C.

Anyone driving across Montana will attest that it’s one big state. When emergencies arise, be it anaphylactic shock, diabetes stroke or a failing heart, families will do almost anything to save a life. That’s understandable.

But what’s not very understandable is the inaction of Congress. Even research funding for the climate-related Zika virus hasn’t occurred as the two parties in Washington fight over who is more right.

Politics is sport to many. Few politicians these days want to govern, to get stuff done. Some will say anything during campaign season. Governing clearly matters more but many just enjoy the sport of campaigning.

Instead of making any fixes to our national healthcare, politicians are routinely spouting ideological support or opposition to solutions.

It’s no secret that medicine saves lives. Neither epinephrine, nor insulin should cost $500 in a modern world. That’s just greedy.

Congress has a moral obligation to fix the rapidly escalating costs of life-saving medicine, especially those that have been around for a while. Most people don’t much care whose fault it is. Just fix it.

Much of political dialogue isn’t even about how to make our lives better, more efficient. The current political dialogue is about building walls, deleted emails, and whose hands are smaller. It’s often sophomoric, bullying for any outlet.

For politicians who have yet to figure it out, every family has a relative who gets sick. Everyone, at some point in our short lives, needs medical help. Everyone – hopefully after living a full life, dies.

Today that bee sting on my arm is a tender annoyance, a reminder. One that is likely to repeat itself over a lifetime. That wasp did not send me to the hospital, in search of urgent care like some other people.

Maybe even a do-nothing Congress could do something; a reasonable price on urgent medicine would be a decent place to start. Seems like a small step, yet would help millions of real people.