Today I had my first fight with Pharmacare. On the advice of an activist nurse I phoned them to confirm my status (confirmed, more or less) and learned also that because I have earned just above fifteen thousand dollars in the past year that I still have to pay an additional three hundred a year on medications before the coverage (a measly seventy percent) kicks in. When I told the soulless twit on the line that I would probably have to decline the prescription (for my thyroid and potentially life threatening) he responded with bland indifference so I hung up on him. This is of course outrageous. I earn twelve whopping dollars an hour as a mental health peer support worker and my employer (I am not going to name them because they could be particularly nasty and vindictive should they come across even a hint of negative criticism and especially from a contract employee at the bottom of their food chain) still does not intend to give us a raise after more than five years. This is not an income that anyone could be expected to live on with some dignity and our health system is especially delinquent in that they would rather save money on the backs of their poorest beneficiaries and contract workers than wisely budget and invest for the long term. I fortunately also live in BC Housing, pay but a courtesy of rent and therefore am getting by okay so I will shut up and be grateful for the time being.
The activist nurse has since found me an affordable deal on said medication if I get it at the pharmacy at Costco, not exactly in my neighbourhood but still within a mile or so of where I live. It's only for once a month, thirteen bucks a pop, and my other prescription, through the Canadian Cancer Society (for my pituitary) is already paid for. So really despite the other said indignities I really can't complain, can I?
In other words, I might have to sacrifice a couple of iced Americanos a month, at the very max, and yes I can afford and absorb this. I am still unconvinced that I really need this intervention but, as I sometimes have already said, time will tell.
They do seem to be interested primarily in spending as little money as possible and as I mentioned today to this nurse I sometimes wonder if there is a kind of very mean Darwinist streak that guides and motivates these people at the top: kind of like an unconscious drive to further oppress, crush and exterminate those who are already weak and poor since we are, to them anyway, their evolutionary inferiors. Survival of the fittest and all that.
The good fortune is that in my more enlightened moments I refuse to believe in conspiracy theories and I actually am convinced that despite our huge capacity for being vicious, selfish and nasty, that we humans are also essentially good. Corrupted perhaps, but still wanting to strive for to be better. At times anyway. If this weren't so I don't think there would be some of these wonderful people around in our medical system, such as the activist nurse, my endocrinologist and others who have already been striving to see that I get the best deals and have to pay the lowest possible cost for these potentially life-saving remedies.
On the other hand we have ISIS in the Middle East and Stephen Harper in Ottawa but here I digress and but for a handful of douchebags I still have nothing but good to say about our species (though at times with a little bitch-slapping thrown in!)
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