When I first started to write this article I immediately thought of the healthcare takeover that moron Barack Obama and his liberal allies in congress are shoving down America’s throat just before Christmas. Drug costs are one thing many people struggle with. I also recall some research that once showed that a drug plan can be better than free healthcare because many problems are caused by people either not taking their prescriptions or not taking them as directed because of cost. One of the main factors that can inhibit people taking their drugs is the cost. Generic drugs can greatly help with the cost.
In case you don’t know generic drugs are made by companies other than the original company who came out with a drug. This is how the process works in a nutshell. A company will make a drug for whatever person. Let’s say it’s a pain killer Darvocet. It is sold generically as pronaps. The company that produces the drug will spend various amounts of money on the research, testing, manufacture, government compliance and marketing of said drug. Since they put all the costs and work into making the drug the company will get protection for a period of time. The patent will vary from country to country. It is a bit tricky, but typically in the United States the patent is for 20 years. This includes time before the trials even start so by the time the drug goes to market it may have a little as a five year patent. Companies typically work it out for cost effectiveness to have it protected on the market for at least ten years so they can recoup their costs and make some money. Under Obamacare there will be an extension in protection to the drug companies and no importation of drugs from other countries. He was once for this, but needed the drug companies on board so he cut them a deal that cost the American public. Importing drugs could save large amounts of money as is.
After this period of protection expires anyone can make the drug. The generic form is cheaper because the company that hold the name brand name did all the work and the other company can copy their work with much less cost therefore selling it for much less and saving the consumer money. This is how things always work and is fine, but it does kind of suck you have someone copy your work and get paid for it. Just about all insurance companies will require that you use a generic if it is available and the price will be very high if you go with a name brand instead. IF you doctor feels the name brand is necessary you can get it with some plans but it will still be very expensive. For example my drug plan gives me a 90 day supply of generics through the mail for $20.00. If I need a name brand drug it is $40 for a 90 day supply. Once I had the company read a script wrong when my wife had an ankle operation and I think we paid like $190 for a 90 day supply of Darvocet. Suffice to say I was really ticked.
My experience with everything from cold remedies, pain relievers and any other type of medicine that I have ever been on at once point or another is that generic drugs work just as good as the name brand counterpart. There are so many government regulations that generic manufacturers have to follow that they are just as safe. The only thing that might be different is the taste or something of that nature. In the case of pills some name brands usually will have a coating to make them easier to swallow while generics don’t and might melt in your mouth tasting disgusting if you do not swallow them quickly enough. I would advise anyone who is on any type of medicine to first see if the drug is available in generic form. If it is not then see if there is another drug that basically does the same thing that does have a generic. Now when it comes to Coca Cola or Sam’s Choice there is not comparison. Coke wins out every time.
Medicine can really help and prevent some serious health issues. I actually think the prescription drug plan of president Bush was more thought out than the socialization of healthcare by Barack Obama and his liberal allies. I think it will hurt America in the long run. On the bright side many of the liberals will be out of office come 2010.
Sources
Watched various hours of debate on the Medicare Part D and Healthcare Debate.
