This is me not complaining — because I don’t vote see, and in this country you don’t have a right to complain if you don’t help pick the next American Idol… I mean president… It’s in the constitution…
*Side note* — So if I write myself in for every position, does that count? I mean, I would still be voting right? No such thing as a wasted vote, right? I think I might change my mind about this whole voting thing. I’m voting for YOU this year; just gonna go straight down my blog roll.
Anyway, this is what (according to my insurance company) $105 worth of Clarinex looks like. If you’re counting, that’s 30 tablets of 5mg desloratadine which happens to work WONDERS for my seasonal allergies. That’s $3.50 per pill… for allergy medication. I’m really not even mad about the cost – drug companies have to make money and I’m all for the making of money. What bothers me is that the REASON it’s $105 is that it’s only available by prescription and the reason it’s only available by prescription is because the government said so. Well, maybe the FDA thinks this is a dangerous drug that could be misused… nope. The makers of Clarinex claim that switching the drug to OTC (over the counter) would hurt their ability to make money off the drug… I wish I had that kind of federal protection for my freelance web design business.
Enter Canada. Clarinex is classified as an OTC drug in Canada. I can get 20 tablets for less than $20 in Canada (http://www.canadadrugs.com/otc/product/Clarinex/431/). Same drug, same manufacturer, different government, different price. Can anybody guess where Paul will be buying his next supply of Clarinex from? Anyone?
Another note — this is not me saying that I prefer Canada’s form of government. I’m not in favor of unviersal healthcare or other social programs run by the government.