When Debra Tansey lost her management job last year, her insurance disappeared with it.
The Chesapeake woman did what a lot of people in her position do: "I started backing off my medications."
First she tried reducing the dosage to make the pills last longer. Then she stopped taking some entirely - a prescription for an ulcer, an antidepressant, and a couple of pain relievers for chronic shoulder pain.
Tansey, 51, may not be doing what the doctor ordered, but it's a step many people have felt forced into during the recession.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey conducted late in 2008 found that 27 percent of people had decided not to fill a prescription during the past year. About one-third said they had problems paying medical bills, compared with one-fourth in 2006, and almost half said a family member delayed or cut back on health care because of cost.
Luckily, Tansey held sacred her blood-pressure medication. "I didn't want to roll over and die." When she needed the prescription renewed, however, she couldn't afford to go to the doctor. A friend told her about Chesapeake Care, a free clinic for people who don't have health insurance.
She qualified for care there in October and was able to see a doctor and get back on her prescriptions. Like free clinics across the state, Chesapeake Care has seen a dramatic increase in people seeking care, which means more people needing prescription drugs.
Cathy Lewis, executive director of the clinic, said the number of prescriptions filled in December 2008 was 15 percent higher than in December 2007.
The clinic helps people get their drugs through The Pharmacy Connection, a software program created by the Virginia Health Care Foundation to link people with free medications.
Deborah Oswalt, executive director of the foundation, said a tally of 43 agencies across the state that use the computer program showed that requests for prescriptions during the past six months rose by 1,540 over the six-month period before that, for an increase of $7.4 million worth of drugs.
Oswalt said organizations are asking for more funding for caseworkers to help process the requests.
"For every person who finds help, there are 10 or more who aren't and they're trying to nurse things along," she said.
The Partnership for Prescription Assistance, which includes more than 475 programs sponsored by pharmaceutical companies and other groups, reported 10,000 more requests for help in Virginia during the first three months of this year compared with the first three months of last year - a 44 percent increase.
That was much larger than the national increase of about 10 percent, said Ken Johnson, spokesman for the effort and senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
He said the partnership is adding more phone operators to handle calls and some pharmaceutical companies are relaxing their requirements for eligibility.
Tansey lost her job in January 2008 and tried to get some routine medical work done, such as a dental checkup and an annual Pap smear test for cervical cancer, before she lost her insurance.
As the divorced mother went off her medications, it was harder to sleep because of the pain in her shoulder. She started walking in a nearby park for exercise, which helped. She leaned on her brother for moral support and her church, New Faith Christian Fellowship in Virginia Beach, to lift her spirits.
She lowered the temperature in her house during the cold months and tried to find ways to reduce her food bill. Once she started going to Chesapeake Care, she found out about a smoking-cessation class.
She knew cigarettes were working against her health and her pocketbook, so she signed up.
"There are so many things in my life I can't control, like keeping my job," Tansey said. "I needed to feel empowered."
She quit smoking on Feb. 5. She recently started working at Norfolk Naval Shipyard doing payroll and time card keeping, so she feels optimistic about both her health and her future.
Lewis, of Chesapeake Care, said the clinic has signed on new patients who have gone for months without their medications.
"Sometimes you don't feel bad when you stop," she said, "and if you feel OK, you think you're OK until you end up in the emergency room."
It's not just the uninsured who have trouble paying for drugs.
Ann Okeefe, who helps people with medication assistance at Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia, said people with Medicare Part D coverage for drugs still struggle with costs. Many have had to pay higher monthly premiums, and some are on newer medications that cost more and don't have generic alternatives.
Many are falling into the "doughnut hole," in which there's a gap in coverage, earlier than they did in previous years. Some seniors will skip doses to keep from falling into that gap.
Algar Lee, a 71-year-old Virginia Beach woman, qualifies for Medicare, the federal insurance for people 65 and older, and said she used to be able to afford the co-payments for her drugs using her income as a nurse's aide.
In September, though, she got sick with an infected cyst in her stomach and had to go to the hospital. Since then she's been unable to work and has struggled to afford her rent, utilities, food and co-payments on her drugs.
She was able to get some help from The Patient Advocate Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps people maintain access to health care, and from some families of her former clients. Still, she's anxious to get back to work.
"My doctor said I shouldn't be working at 71, but I can't live from month to month on donations."
Elizabeth Simpson, (757) 446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com
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Walmart's $4 generic meds IS NOT a co-pay, as per pharmacy
I called their Newport News pharmacy and confirmed that the list of generic meds that cost $4 is the price, not a co-pay.
Their pharmacy number is 874-4722, and Brent said I could provide his name as my source.
I hope this reaches all who need them, although I have no use for them or Sam's Club.
I enjoy using Walgreens.com, which offers a mail delivery service! I'm thankful I have insurance.
I know where the jobs are
EVERYBODY PLEASE READ! YOU WON'T BE SORRY!
The cost of paying our unemployed to sit home while illegals work those jobs, on top of bringing in more visas will destroy our economy, put us further in debt and leave us even more vulnerable. It's costing US Billions across the country for something that could be cut by at least half by mandating E-Verify for all employees within 60 days, saving Billions in unemployment and a lot more across the board!! It takes less than a $1 per employee to do this since they already are suppose to have I-9's and required documents on file!!
EX: Virginia unemployment costs alone for January-March has already reached more than half of all of our 2008's total of just over a 1/2 Billion dollars. Imagine what California is paying out, PLUS 48 more states!
These costs do not include those dropped from the rolls, what the states incur in having to deal with illegals and their dependents, or the cost to the rest of us, including state and federal governments (our tax dollars) from hospitals passing it on or closing, or the impact on our schools that have to hire translators and other staff to accommodate them. Let's not forget the fact that more st
Two thoughts:
1. If you live near the Mexican border, most border towns will fill American prescriptions for much less than they cost in this country. I am told the drugs are the same, not any sort of scam. My nephew got his Effexor this way for quite a while (mailed from his grandparents in Texas). I didn't quite dare try it when I was there, but if someone is going without meds, it's worth a shot.
2. Churches are *already* taking care of their own (a previous poster asked why they don't use the tithes to do that). If everyone went to a church, synagogue, etc., they would all have a place to turn in times of trouble. But no fair spending Sundays playing golf while I go to church and tithe, until the economy tanks and you show up at my church's door with a sense of entitlement to our tithe money. It is used to help people who participate with us. Like come on workdays and help renovate rooms so the church can save money, etc. That's what a community is all about, giving and taking.
Perhaps Silence would be a good choice
at least until you take the time to check.
See http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=546834 for a description of the program. IT IS NOT CO-PAY it s $4 for the 30 day supply.
No wonder you think the world is out to get you. The free market has provided something that would be of great value to you but you are so determined to be a victim you won't even take a minute to check out good advice before arguing how mistreated you are.
Wm Tabor DDS again listen the $4.00 is the co payment
Doctor Tabor I don't get it? why do you repeat Walmart has $4.00 scripts?? Thats the co pay provided you have insurance. No one is complaining that $4.00 is keeping folks from their meds... Its the folks who fall between the cracks. Those who are with companies who don't offer insurance. Thousand of people fall in this catagory. We do need a gap type insurance thats affordable to cover folks transistioning to new jobs due to layoffs etc. You cannot get any generic drug from anyone for $4.00 unless you have a medical plan. I pay 3.00-22.00 as a co payment for my meds. Retired Navy. Mine was supposed to be free for life.
I may Sound Cynical, but..............
Wonder how many of these folks skipping their meds are not quite broke enough to skip their cigarettes or booze.
Not co-pay, actual price at WalMart
Though not all generics are on their list, WalMart sells almost 300 generic drugs for $4 for a 30 day supply. There are few diseases treatable with brand name drugs for which an acceptable generic alternative is not on the list.
I don't know why so many people despise WalMart, they do more to help raise the standard of living of the middle class and poor than government.
There are ways to economize and make the best of difficult finances. It is better to do what is within your reach than to sit around and whine for someone else to fix your problems.
In response to comment that drugs are only 4.00 at walmart
The doctor who stated walmart will sale you generics for 4.00
must be forgetting thats the co payment, provided you have insurance.
I'm certain that was easy for the doctor DDS to forget since he probably has the best plan money can buy. To the folks that say live healthy?
Well hey Cancer Hypertension type 1 diabetes have nothing to do with lifestyle, any more than Polio or any of the Muscular diseases. So to those folks consider your lucky. We all should pay what we can. But no one should be left out of having health care. Drug companies are greedy most doctors even agree. We all need to work harder to lower prices and everyone should pay when they can.
I find it interesting that
I find it interesting that people in other countries can buy the same drugs that our people have issues affording at much lower prices. Why aren't more people working to smuggle in and create an underground distribution network of prescription drugs (for legit problems) versus illegal drugs?
Nostalgic Amnesia
"The government should do what the constitution sets forth, and protect our borders, and leave the rest to charities or people's families. Stop welfare and section 8 and all other unconstitutional gimmes, and then stop stealing so much money from the pockets of hard working citizens so we can take care of our OWN families instead of everyone elses."
A great poet said that amnesia is the flip side of nostalgia and this is a good example. Shall we go back poorhouses and having to have all our parents, children and poor relatives living with us? Shall we return to masses of the unemployed roaming the country as hobos? Shall we go back to expected lifespans of 55 and high infant mortality? Maybe the teabaggers are for that but most of us are not.