Author: theonethedude
Posted: Sat May 25, 2013 1:07 am
To be completely honest. blunt, and frank, I got myself into this situation of being a drug addict. I’m willing to wager that most people on this forum can say the same, aside from those who got hooked because of long-term pain management. No one forced me to get addicted to Opiodes, I made that mistake all by myself, and unfortunately, I now have to pay the consequences of that. I can either go on an expensive drug-maintenance program, get regular addiction therapy, or stop on my own.
I chose the more luxurious route, but that wasn’t my only option so I can’t complain about the prices. This is a weird and possibly inaccurate and ridiculous analogy, but it’s kind of like buying a car. I have to get to work and back, get to the store and back, ect. I can either walk, ride bike, or buy a car. Going on Suboxone is kind of like buying a car in that respect, and unfortunatly some people are going to be selling the same exact care for very different prices, you can either bite the bullet and buy a car at a more expensive price for the sake of convenience, you can shop around for a cheaper car, or you can just say fuck it and walk to your destination, but either way that destination has to be reached.
Some doctors take it too far and charge outrageous prices just because they can, and you can compare this to an average drug dealer who will do the same. It’s very unfortunate. Luckily mine doesn’t do that, her prices I would consider fair and she is knowledgeable about Suboxone and addiction.
That being said, I can’t say I blame the doctors all that much. You don’t HAVE to go on Suboxone. You can just go on regular addiction therapy and it would be miles cheaper. Suboxone is really a luxury. Luckily based on my current income and the doctors I have access to I can afford it, at least for now. It’s too bad a lot of doctors will take advantage of drug addicts, but such is life, and it’s never going to change, it just is what it is. As far as not accepting insurance goes, I can’t blame them at all. Dealing with insurance just as a patient is a fucking nightmare, and I can’t imagine how much of a pain it is on the other end.
To compare Suboxone maintenance to diabetes or cancer, I’m sorry, but that’s wildly inaccurate and insane logic. A diabetes patient can’t simply say "Okay, I’m just going to tough out the next month or so and eventually my diabetes will be gone and I won’t have to deal with this shit anymore." It sucks if you can’t find a local affordable doc, but it is what it is. You don’t NEED Suboxone to overcome drug addiction, you just don’t, it’s a luxury.
The point I guess I’m trying to make, is that Suboxone, at least in my mind, is a luxury, and I’m lucky it’s even an option in the first place. And also, all healthcare really is expensive. Even with insurance just to go to a regular doctor visit is $200 and that’s after my insurance which isn’t bad insurance. If you don’t have insurance and you need to go to the dentist, good luck with that because they won’t do a damn thing at all until you put some cash down for them and it’s not cheap.
Edit: This post is kind of jumbled up because I edited it and re-worded a lot of it after the fact.
Also, I just read the post a couple posts up from this one, saying how Suboxone should basically be free/cost reduced to everyone who wants it. That’s just not possible. Who’s going to pay for it? Just because you’re not paying for it doesn’t mean it isn’t being paid for. Let me guess, a tax subsidy? No thanks, I pay enough taxes as it is and if I ever overcome my drug addiction, frankly, I don’t want to be paying for everyone else’s through my taxes. And if not vicariously, the only other reasonable and realistic outcome is that everyone who pays for it is just going to be reamed even harder and have to pay prices that would make the current ones look like a 50% off sale.
PS: I’m not condoning price gouging or saying it’s right, but it is what it is. Being ripped off is basically just a part of the current American lifestyle.