Locals forgo meds because of economy
With a part-time job, two medical conditions that need monitoring and no health insurance, Margie Holloway finally caught a break.
Even though she lives in Bronte and works in Winters, Holloway was accepted last week as a new patient at the Presbyterian Medical Care Mission in Abilene, which treats patients with no health insurance and limited incomes.
“That place is truly a blessing,” Holloway said.
Thousands of others nationwide who have part-time jobs, or no jobs, and no health insurance are looking for the same kind of blessing. Holloway suffers from hypoglycemia, which requires monitoring but no medication, and asthma, which requires both.
“I wasn’t able to afford to go to my doctor anymore,” Holloway said, and someone suggested the medical mission.
For $20, she was able to see a physician at the medical mission last week and get two prescription asthma inhalers. And, the staff at the mission is filling out paperwork for her to get free or lower-cost asthma medication from a pharmaceutical manufacturer.
Not everyone is as fortunate as Holloway, which can lead to serious results. That is especially true of people with diseases that need constant monitoring and treatment.
An analysis by The Associated Press showed that people who are suffering financially due to the recession often are going without or cutting back on needed medical supplies, with diabetics leading the way.
To compound the problem, diabetes is rapidly growing in the United States, with another 1.6 million Americans diagnosed in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Scott Golding, executive director of the medical mission, said he is seeing unusually large numbers of “newly uninsured” patients and many of them suffer from diabetes. Golding said diabetes and hypertension are the two diseases most often diagnosed at the mission.
The mission annually sees about 900 to 1,100 new patients with all types of illnesses, Golding said, but that number is rising. He thinks at least 1,300 new patients will seek treatment at the clinic this year.
“And I would expect to see that number go to 1,500 or 1,600 in 2010,” he said.
In fact, Golding said the mission is planning to add another physician or physician assistant “just to react to what we know is coming.”
Because so many of the patients have diabetes, the medical mission and the local campus of the Texas Tech University School of Pharmacy have teamed up to provide additional care.
Dr. Mary Klein, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, spends half of every workday at the medical mission. She helps patients with diabetes monitor their illness and manage their medications.
Staff at the medical mission sees new patients each Thursday. Klein said that on April 9, four of the five new patients were diabetics.
“The number is always growing,” she said.
Klein helps the patients work out a monitoring and treatment plan. She writes prescriptions, which have to be signed by one of the physicians, and tries to prescribe $4 generic pills if possible.
She said metformin is the baseline drug for Type II diabetics — the most common type — and can be purchased for $4.
If patients need something other than metformin, only brand names are available, and they are expensive, Klein said.
According to The Associated Press analysis, sales of metformin are up 7 percent since June. Brand-name versions of the same drug, costing 10 times as much, are down 9 percent on average, since then, the AP reported.
Becky Wells, a nurse with Hendrick Medical Center’s diabetes self-management program, can vouch for the bleak picture. The program attracts a lot of patients, she said, and the number of newly diagnosed diabetics continues to grow.
Some of those have no health insurance and others may have health insurance that doesn’t cover diabetes, she said. People who are having to cut back on medications are taking a big risk, she said.
“It’s an expensive disease,” Wells said, “but even more expensive if you don’t treat it.”
