So much for a change

To everyone who is calling for change this political season. Sorry, but I think you’re lying. You say you want to shake up the system. To change the way things are done in Washington. I'm calling bullshit. The President only has so much power - he (or she) can propose and advocate for the changes everyone says they want, but aside from some (hopefully) limited executive powers, real change happens in the halls of Congress.

I hear a LOT of people from both parties talking about how Congress is broken. Overall, approval ratings of Congress are so low that we’re reading them in decimal points. Negotiation and cooperation across party lines, which are pretty much essential for getting things done, have become symbols of weakness. The next Congress hasn't even started yet, and the incumbents are already bragging about how obstructionist they are going to be. Yet everyone keeps putting this collection of clowns back into the car.  They hate Congress, but they like THEIR Congressman/woman.

Consider this:

All 435 House seats are up for grabs. Incumbents are trying for reelection in 394 of those races. Only 5 of those incumbents lost in their party's primary, and just 24 races are considered to be even possibly competitive for the incumbent (according to Ballotpedia).

But what about the Senate, where everyone keeps talking about a flip-flop and “big changes” because the teeter-totter of control might switch by one or two members? There are 34 Senate races taking place this year. Incumbents are running in 29 of them, and in 20 are safe bets for reelection. But in 3 of the 9 races that are competitive, the incumbent is running against one of the 12 House members who decided to try for something bigger. House members also account for at least one of the contestants in each of the 5 "open" races."

So what it boils down to folks... we had 469 opportunities to make a change, and it looks like we're going to blow most of them.  Unless people go to the polls, forget about party lines and just say NO to every incumbent, come January, anywhere from 83-90% of the current crop of bozos will be coming back to dish up some more dysfunction.

Welcome to your change, America. This is your circus. These are your clowns.

Something is broken, but it's not my foot

Peroneal tendonitis. That's a fancy word for "you twisted your foot and it won't get better if you insist on wearing flip-flops and ballet flats." After weeks of a mildly annoying achy foot, and an x-ray to rule out a stress fracture, that was the podiatrist's diagnosis. Treatment: a lecture on proper footwear and a prescription anti-inflammatory for a month while it heals.

And that's where the real problem started. The doctor prescribed a pill called Vimovo, twice a day. She gave me a few samples and said she was calling it in to a pharmacy in Acworth (I was in Midtown) that would mail me the 30-day supply. She said it was like Aleve, but wouldn't upset my stomach to take twice a day.

I've had issues before where an allergy doctor prescribed me a really expensive version of Flonase that wasn't covered by my insurance, so when I got back to the office, I went on to my health insurance website to check the coverage. 

Vimovo is not covered. And a 30-day supply of this wonder drug from a mail order pharmacy would cost me $1,916.98, according to my insurance company. Holy crap! So I called the insurance company to verify. Yep, it's not covered. Then I looked up Vimovo find out what was so great about this insanely expensive little pill. And you know what, it's not just "like Aleve." It IS Aleve. TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR ALEVE, WITH A COATING OF NEXIUM! 

So I called the pharmacy to cancel the prescription, because just hell no. The pharmacist tells me that they have a partnership with the company that makes Vimovo, and that I'll only have to pay $10 and the manufacturer absorbs what my insurance doesn't cover. What kind of bullshit is this?!?!? Now I'm sure that Horizon Pharma isn't taking a massive loss out of concern for my health - you can bet that they are probably making a profit on the drug at the $10 cost, which comes out to 6 cents per pill (and trying to get the remaining $1906 (or at least part of it) from SOMEBODY.  Probably my insurance company, who will then try to get it from me, or bitch about high costs and raise my/my firm's rates.  

To compare: the Vimovo pill would cost somebody who actually has to pay the market price about $64 per day for the month I need to take it. If I go to CVS and buy large-size bottles of generic aleve and prilosec (cheaper version of Nexium), I can take the exact same dosage of the same meds for about $1.20 per day.

I also found this New York Times article about Horizon, which bought the patent on the Vimovo from Astra Zeneca and  upped the price about by 1200% over a two-year period. Their other big money drug is a similarly overpriced combo of motrin and pepcid. And the company isn't run by PT Barnum, although CEO Timothy Welbert probably shares Barnum's views on the rate of stupidity among American consumers.

Now when it comes to my health, I'll admit I've been pretty lucky so far (sound effect= one very loud knock on wood). Heading into middle age, I've had very few problems, I've have always been fortunate enough to have very good health insurance coverage, and like to think I'm reasonably intelligent enough to do the research about procedures, drugs and costs.

But you know what, I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority, and that lots of people are getting really screwed over by greedy pharmaceutical companies, greedy insurance companies, or doctors and pharmacies who are probably getting all sorts of kickbacks and fancy lunches for prescribing this stuff. 

We need to admit that the system is broken. We need to admit that we can do better. We need to look at most other industrialized countries who have some form of a national health system and have lower costs and better health outcomes (better mortality rates, lower disease rates, higher quality of care,etc.).

But for now, I'm  going to do the only three things I can do: vote for politicians who want to see the system change, stop by CVS on the way home, and buy a new pair of Sketchers.

I'm a Georgia Voter!

OK, I’m going to rant for a little while here.  It’s my blog, and I’m allowed to vent when I want to.

One of the reasons I was happy to move back home to Georgia is that after two decades, I was, quite simply, tired of Washington. At first, it was a love affair.  I did the all-but-mandatory stint as a Hill intern and would come home and watch C-SPAN into the wee hours of the morning. Walking across the mall would send this little shiver down my spine. Of course I was a West Wing junkie.  But by the time House of Cards premiered last year, that show seemed like a pretty realistic portrayal of how Washington works these days.

It’s primary day in Georgia, and for a politically aware, moderate voter, it was pretty damn depressing. I made it a point to look at sample ballot in advance and do a little research on candidate positions and endorsements to decide who to vote for. In too many cases, it seemed like there wasn’t a whole lot of choice.  And the available choices weren’t that appealing. 

I’ve never stuck with one party or another.  I swing left on some issues, right on others.  I decide which primary to vote in by how the critical races are being decided.  Right now, I live in Cobb County, so a Republican ballot was a no-brainer – there aren’t any Democrats even running for a lot of the offices on the ballot.  But picking someone to represent me in Congress was like being offered a choice between syphilis, gonorrhea or herpes – I don’t want any of them, and is this really what I have to choose from?!?!

But abstinence isn’t an option when it comes to voting for me.  So what’s a girl to do but suck it up and try to pick the one who seemed the LEAST batshit crazy…

It occurred to me that this election season has been remarkably quiet to me.  Other than a few yard signs (not very many), it seemed almost invisible. Yet I read in the AJC that the Senate candidates have already spent $9 million on television ads, with outside interest groups adding even more to the pot. But here’s the thing… I usually watch stuff on Apple TV or Netflix, so I haven’t seen a single candidate’s television ads. When we moved down here in November, we didn’t bother with a land line, so I haven’t gotten any robocalls either. I get my news online, and I try to stick to less obviously biased sites, I haven’t even gotten many popup ads.

I don’t think I’m all that unusual in how I get my news and entertainment. I’m heading into middle age, and I think anyone under age 40 or so is probably even less connected to the mediums used by traditional political advertising.

What I have noticed is that much of the political “news” I see shared via email and facebook comes from sites that might as well be called “libruls-r-stoopid.com” or “die-evil-conservative-nazis.org.”  More and more, our news and information comes to us in an echo chamber where we hear only the perspectives that we THINK we agree with, or via “news” sites that put the political analysis somewhere in between lolcats, celebrity plastic surgery disasters and quizzes about which flavor of bubblegum best represents our inner being.

The scary thing is that our elected officials seem to be getting their information from the same sources too. Democracy is great, but it only works when the people making the policies have genuine and knowledgeable discussions and a willingness to at least hear each others’ points of view. And it only works when the people who elect those policymakers do the same.

Sadly, I don’t have any magic bullets or suggestions, but I’d love some thoughts on how to reach younger, more digital and more compartmentalized voters – and how we can all work to make ourselves more educated and effective participants in this crazy system.

But for now, I think I’m going to fix a drink and go watch a few episodes of President Bartlett and the gang…