Fred Wilber

Maybe your health-care company told you today’s new drug is tomorrow’s generic. Do you think they want to spare your billfold by selling you old common drugs instead of those hot new items?

A lot of old drugs going for a nickel apiece still do the job. Some of the new ones do it quicker and better with less rigmarole. Sure they will be generic someday, but will someday be in your future? In the new everyday America, we learn to expect a little less for our money.

We used to overthrow other nations for doing that to their people.

Socially advanced nations have medical programs equal to their advanced status. My drug plan is partially provided by the VA.

The local office a mile from my house is run by as nice and capable a bunch of people as you could assemble to run a business, and the VA has a “formulary” even though the nation calls us war heroes.

I and the rest of us veterans are thankful for whatever is available without any special titles, but drug availability might be accomplished in everybody’s formulary by simply adding a second tier of new drugs at a reasonably increased cost.

I have been seeing a general practitioner for years about his golf. Recently he bought a set of clubs and prescribed Plavix for me, which the VA won’t supply in my case. The old drug for age-related death rehearsal is Coumadin, an old cheap but effective blood thinner. You can tell who is taking it—the folks with purple bruises where a breeze touched them on their hands and arms.

It requires regular and frequent blood analysis to monitor its volume, thus more medical usage. Plavix, I’m told, has an added anti-clot factor and requires less monitoring. It costs me plenty. When I drop one on the floor I get the magnifying glass and shut the cat in the bathroom.

No wonder we old folks forget to take our “meds.” Heck, we’re just trying to save money and spare our pet. One geriatric drug snatched by a cat would stone the beast the same as many of those drugs stone us.

Anyway, I wrote to Senator Aubertine about my two-tier idea since he is on a VA committee, but I didn’t get a response from his staff. The same thing happened when I wrote to Congressman Walsh about another suggestion a while ago. He was on an Armed Services committee, too. No response.

Believe me, I’m not as naive as all this sounds. I don’t really buy any of that stuff about “write to your congressman.” I’m only acting in the interest of improving social conditions for everybody. How would it look if our politicians were paying three bucks for a pill and were seen dragging the edge of a piece of cardboard over the rug, with a cat prowling nearby, for something to pop up?

We all want the best for our politicians, don’t we? It’s my guess our legislators’ health-care plan doesn’t have a “formulary” at all and they can have Plavix, and everything else, free. If that is so, it’s lucky for them if they aren’t heroes.