This story is almost unimaginable. This happened in the United States of America and it happened today and quite sure it happens everyday somewhere here in this country and should never ever happen but today it happened to affect me and I am madder than a wet setting hen. If our government was really interested in helping solve the addiction crisis, they would be making laws for mental health and helping those with medical problems already. They don’t give a damn.
We all know that America has a huge addiction problem. According to people in power, it is a national emergency. YOU DO NOT SEND money to addicts or recovering addicts and hope they do the right thing. YOU JUST don’t. Of course that is precisely what big Pharma and Corporations want you to do and I will explain and lay it out how I sincerely believe they have figured out a way to kill off the poor.
This is Thanksgiving weekend. Prior to the big Turkey Day, obviously people in HHS were taking time off early. This country is so ass backwards I cannot believe I am writing this. I received a phone call Wednesday that our eldest granddaughter/adopted daughter, in Ga. who has been clean for about a month had her diabetic medication changed while in one of her diabetic comas, was trying to reach her caseworker as her diabetic insulin was running low. It was also time to review her medicaid eligibility while she was hospitalized several weeks ago. It is Impossible to do an interview when in intensive care. After release from the hospital, They had cut her medicaid off. I am not going to make this long story short because it is so stupid and ridiculous, people need to be aware of how far down the tubes we have gone.
She is living with her biological mother now and has a 6 year old daughter. She is staying clean and sober. She is 27. The biological mother and her husband just paid their property taxes and all had been trying to reach Dept of Family and Children caseworker since the meds were running low. They were dead broke and not even enough change to pay for gas to get the husband to work. They paid out of pocket the last insulin bottle which they found over the counter for 24.00 at Walmart a month ago. Thanksgiving and bills and end of month financial needs leaves the wallet empty for normal 15.00 an hour workers trying to make ends meet with a special needs adult in the house. These are not wealthy people. These are poor people.
I have been worried since Wednesday when the caseworker and the supervisors were not returning calls about covering life saving insulin and reinstating the medicaid. The review and the paperwork had since hospitalization was done. She assured me she would get this taken care of Friday. It had not been approved again. Not yet. Caseworkers had left early for the holidays and did not return on Friday. Today is Sunday and I got a call from our eldest who sounded sick. She asked if we had the money for the insulin. I said, “ It is the end of the month and I won’t send you money and we are stretched but will call the pharmacy and pay for it or go to the Walmart Pharmacy down here and pay for it and you can pick it up. Let me call you back. I called the Walmart Pharmacy in Georgia who promptly told me I could not do that. I had to be present to use my card to pay for meds and to send her a gift card or moneygram. I said, “NO”. She is a recovering addict and I can’t do that. I cannot trust her to get her insulin with the money but if I pay for the insulin at the pharmacy , then she will pick it up. They said, No we can’t do that from one store to the other. AGAINST POLICY.
Now I can order a pizza or place an order out to HSN or Amazon and thousands of other places and paying with my card is no problem. We are talking INSULIN, not Opiods or narcotics but a life saving medication for a Type I diabetic. They absolutely would not let me pay for a life saving drug for my kid/grandkid 360 miles away. If I send the money to the bio Mom., then her husband has used his gas money to get to work picking up the money and the meds. They live rural.
So I call three other pharmacies here and there to see if I can do this. They all say no. CVS had the bright idea to buy a Gift card and let her pick it up and I went off on a rant that is hanging somewhere over the clouds in Central Florida, I am sure. I said, “Have you lost your mind”? I just told you that she is an addict and she can pick up a gift card, buy something , return it for cash and possibly die without her insulin”. Give me a BREAK, I am not that stupid. I said, “Obviously you are”. I said, “ Look, I have been a customer of your’s for 30 years” and you can’t do this?” Give me the Headquarters number right now. I am face to face at this point. I went there. I had already had Walmart call their supervisor to explain the situation which came back, No, you have to present the card. They got an earful as well when they suggested I send a Western Union money express directly to her. They refused to take a Western Union express mail as well. My God, we are living in the age of technology and I could not get 25.00 bucks to a pharmacy for a life saving medication and she lives miles and miles from anyone I knew and again remember this is Thanksgiving weekend. Who the hell was home? The bio Mom was frantic as her sugar was over 300 and found out she was using some old insulin she found in a drawer. Not her prescription and probably so old it was not any good. I tell the bio. YOU go get that insulin and I will cover the cost and western union you the cost of meds and gas. I cannot drive 365 miles for a 24.00 bottle of insulin. I even had to scrape up the cost of sending the money. Walmart to Walmart would not do it. Certain items they do not do this I found out. So I was told. We are 5 days from the 1st and about the 23rd of the month every month, things get slim, financially without extra expense of Thanksgiving dinner.
It is all taken care of now but I was so furious and determined to have these pharmacies policy changed and somebody’s ass in a sling come morning at DEFACS. She is not receiving support from the husband, not on social security, but just medicaid or was and some food stamps. That was probably cut off because of the lost review. Now….she has an AIC of 11. Failing veins and kidneys due to her addiction and dealing with Type I diabetes since 10. In this America, I think big Pharma and this so called government and corporations have figured out a way to eliminate the poor. Make it so difficult to save a life..let em die. This is not about my daughter/granddaughter, this about thousands, maybe millions of people trying to get heart medication, brain meds, insulin and God knows how much more medicine and even with help of family has to be begging for help because of stupid, idiotic, incompetent, policies. That is why I am writing this. Our problem got solved. This time. What if the meds were 200.00 or 500.00 or 1000.00? It was near impossible to get 24.00 to a pharmacy for a life saving medication. Medicaid has been jerking her around for over a month and the last time she ran out before out of pocket pay…..she ended up in the hospital after the Fire Dept at midnight told her to go to ER and ER gave her a shot and sent her home only to go back within 5 hours throwing up and drowning in ketones. She was hospitalized for 5 days..missing that stupid interview.
Surely if I can use my debit card to order a pair of headphones from HSN or a stuffed animal or a Pizza from Pizza Hut and have that pizza sent 500 miles away, Why can legislators or those party people begging for donations take the money and use it for their candidate, then why can’t a pharmacy take my money, precious little and tight as it is but in the bank….to save a life? What if she was still on the streets and had no one I could send this to? WHAT????? I am sure there are thousands and thousands out there just in this position. There should be a policy whereas no life saving medication can be refused for payment from one store to another, in a chain. I actually had one pharmacy tell me, “ Well, we have to account in our inventory and we have to cash out in our own drawers”? Really? You mean to tell me these Corporate geniuses can’t figure out an alternate inventory receipt process from other chains? REALLY?
Do legislators think that the crime situation won’t get worse with all of these stupid de regulations from corporate America to just make policy convenient for only the Corporations and a life is not worth 25.00 because it came from out of town in an emergency? The damn money was available but they could not accept due to their policy.
Is this happening all over America? Because I know for a fact it is happening in southern states.
So there is a TRUE fact. Not fake news. A human life is not worth the price of a pizza. Not in this country. I will be busy advocating and talking to congresscritters tomorrow… this is beyond bad...this is a human rights violation IMO.
I am reminded of this…
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