Asthmatics with an industry sitting on their chests: Do Pharmaceutical Companies rig the market?

Two days ago I went to the drug store, but went away without my meds. They told me I was in "the Gap" again. The gap is slang for "We (insurance companies) don't really cover your meds now, we just seem to."

From August 1 through (I don't know when but, I think it is sometime in) January, my drug insurance runs out. Chances are yours does too. If you are on asthma medications or other high priced drugs, and especially if another household member is also on prescription drugs, you know what I mean.  The higher your drug costs, the sooner you enter the gap. And the sooner you enter the gap, the happier drug companies must be.

Who invented the "gap" anyway? The gap seems particularly sinister for asthmatics and others, because it allows insurance companies to give the illusion of drug coverage. What it really does is allow drug companies to avoid paying for the higher priced meds, without seeming to do so. The Pharmacy formularies may well seem to include a wide variety of drugs, but any higher priced medications  will drive you into the gap well before the end of the year. In my case, the gap begins around the end of July, so this means that I really do not have coverage for almost half of the year. I assume many others are in the same boat with me.

Asthmatics have a hard time: Some, who stop taking their drugs while trying to wait out the gap, could be at increased risk. 

When asthma kicks in and it feels like someone is sitting on your chest, that someone may be the pharmaceutical industry. 

Drugs in America are higher than other place, but you cannot buy them there, because laws (lobbied for by the drug industry) prevent it: When asthma kicks in and it feels like someone is sitting on your chest, that someone may be the pharmaceutical industry. The following quote is from a New York Times article entitled "The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath":

Pharmaceutical companies also buttress high prices by choosing to sell a medicine by prescription, rather than over the counter, so that insurers cover a price tag that would be unacceptable to consumers paying full freight. They even pay generic drug makers not to produce cut-rate competitors in acontroversial scheme called pay for delay.

Thanks in part to the $250 million last year spent on lobbying for pharmaceutical and health products — more than even the defense industry — the government allows such practices. Lawmakers in Washington have forbidden Medicare, the largest government purchaser of health care, to negotiate drug prices. Unlike its counterparts in other countries, the United States Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which evaluates treatments for coverage by federal programs, is not allowed to consider cost comparisons or cost-effectiveness in its recommendations. And importation of prescription medicines from abroad is illegal, even personal purchases from mail-order pharmacies.
“Our regulatory and approval system seems constructed to achieve high-priced outcomes,” said Dr. Peter Bach, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. “We don’t give any reason for drug makers to charge less.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/the-soaring-cost-of-a-simple-breath.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

If you are "in the gap" I would like to see your comments below.

Also, if you have a favorite source for your asthma medication, please share that with us.

If your doctor has prescribed a lower cost asthma controller medication that is equally effective as the pricey alternatives, please share that as well.

Thanks

Asthma alert: Smoke from forest fires in Okanagan county could threaten the health of asthmatics

It has been heartbreaking to see the devastation of the town of Pateros and other communities in Okanogan County, Washington this week, as viewed in the daily news and the Internet.

Given the fires burning across much of our state, asthmatics may want to pay close attention to their breathing and to any indications of asthma worsening. Remember that smoke can travel long distances, well over 100 miles.

The following website may be of interest:  http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5318238.pdf

I personally try to avoid traveling through areas with present or recent wildfires, especially forest fires. The smoke seems to linger, sometimes for days, weeks or longer.

I visited Tucannon, Washington about two or three years after the 2006 forest fire and the area still smelled of smoke, ash, or soot. Because I had been having asthma attacks before that, my lungs, it seems, were particularly sensitive so that I began having tickling in my chest and cough. We had planned to camp but only stayed one night. That was several years ago now.

Please do not plan camping trips or other activities the require driving through areas of fire and smoke with people who have a history of asthma attacks. Smoke has been associated with a number of asthma deaths, so beware, and take the threat seriously. Better safe than sorry.

Smoke from the forest fires from over one hundred of miles away, in Oregon even, have been known to enter the Tri Cities, Washington basin. Let's hope this does not happen this time.

Meanwhile, I feel for those asthmatics and other people with lung diseases who  have been living near the fire areas. Okanogan  county is beautiful country, so it must be doubly sad for any of those who may have been forced to leave to get away from the smoke, let alone from the fire that destroyed their homes.

Do you have an asthma story to tell? I would be interested to hear about it. Thanks.

Frank

I have concerns lest the State of Washington cave in to coal exporters, thereby putting millions of people at risk of asthma and other lung-diseases.

Asthma and sleep deprivation

Are you an asthmatic who feels sleepy all the time? Do you Run out of energy after brief exertion? How about your asthmatic child?

Which floors are best for asthmatics?

Carpets, or wood? Are your carpeted floors making you sick, or is it the other way around?

Should you remove carpets preferring hard surface floors? Carpet companies and floor installers often laud the benefits of carpeted floors, even for asthmatics. When we built our new home last year, selecting the right floors was a big decision because I had been having regular asthma problems for the previous five years.  So who's right?

AQI up and running again

It appears that the AQI site is up and running at: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/enviwa/StationInfo.aspx?ST_ID=20

Thank goodness. It is good to be able to keep track of what the monitors are saying about our air quality.

Asthma cure may be coming

Asthma cure coming? Possibly. Recent research seems to suggest that future asthmatics may be "cured" rather than being treated only for the symptoms as is presently done. Work, for example at Harvard, indicates that new understandings of NKT cells (Natural Killer T-Cells) may lead to one-time treatments rather than the long-term (permanent) use of "control" and "rescue" drugs.


To read about the progress, see the article "Harvard U. Makes Big Strides to Cure Asthma" as follows:
http://www.nytimes.com/uwire/uwire_ELEJ032820061927994.html?ex=1221454800&en=53c9955e190ebcbf&ei=5034