As a heart patient with a defibrillator and pacemaker due to life threatening arrhythmias, I must live with taking a certain amount of daily heart medications to survive. Months ago, I was hospitalized due to a shock by my defibrillator. The medications I take are supposed to control these deadly arrhythmias, but thankfully I have back-up when medications do not work.

While in the hospital, it came to my physician’s attention that I was being given the generic form of one of my heart medications. He asked me when this switch occurred and told me to tell the pharmacy that I was absolutely, under NO circumstances, to be taking the generic form of the drug! Apparently, many people with my condition have reported problems with the generic form, although it seems to work well in people with other conditions, and even though the active ingredient in generic brands is supposed to be the same as the brand-name drug.

It is important to note, however, that the FDA allows generic drugs to use different inactive ingredients such as binders and time-release agents than their original counterparts. I wondered if anyone else experienced problems with generic drugs and found that an alarming number have. So much so, that ABC Dateline did an investigation and reported in September 2014 that the FDA had actually lied about testing certain generic drugs for safety . . .

Furiously, I questioned, “…even when my doctor is demanding that I take the brand name?!” The pharmacist was flippant and told to contact my health insurance provider to inquire. I found out that my insurance company would in fact “allow” me to take the brand-named drug my physician prescribed, but the caveat was that I had to pay for it myself. My insurance company (like most I presume) will only pay for brand-named prescription drugs now whenever the generic form is not available. No amount of arguing about it was going to change the situation . . .

When I helped my fiance with his taxes last month, he told me he thought he would meet the threshold in order to qualify for a deductible due to medical expenses. I told him the threshold was fairly high, and I was sure he would not reach it, not really wanting to look for all the receipts for the year and calculate them all. But I agreed to do it, and I was absolutely shocked to discover that his out-of-pocket medical expenses were well over $10,000 for the year! That did not include any insurance premiums or deductibles he pays for himself or his two children. (Read more from “Heart Patient Learns Firsthand: The Affordable Care Act Is NOT Affordable” HERE)

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