Impasse

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts (not like there are that many to begin with), I don't know a heck of a lot about economics. What I do know a little bit about is health care, since that's the work that I do. In particular, I know about health care in a relatively underserved community that's rife with economic problems. And so one of the issues I will probably return to over and over and over is the need for universal health care. Of all the goals Obama set for his administration, I have the highest hopes for this one. (Also that he will gather up all the tattered pieces of the Constitution, paste them back together, and remind America that it's good to have a leader that actually knows the value of its founding principles.)

Every so often (and, sadly, not nearly as rarely as I would wish) I have patients (or, more accurately, their parents) who are faced with the reality that they cannot pay for medication. Most of the time I prescribe generic medications, or the pharmacies substitute them, and this works for most people. (Sadly, the relatively low prices of many generics still price them out of some of my patients' range.) However, there are some medications that are simply not currently available in generic form. One such category is long-acting ADHD medication, which I'm kind of reluctant to mention, if only because ADHD is a rather polarizing diagnosis. Regardless, the medication is of genuine help to a lot of kids, and the monthly tag generally exceeds $100 for those with no insurance. I dread thinking what kind of sacrifices some parents have to make to scrape up the cash so their kids can succeed in school.

So consider this my introductory post on a subject to which I intend to return with some regularity. That health care, inarguable a necessity, is still unaffordable in the United States is immoral, and we have an obligation to demand change on this issue.