INSIDE THE BOOK
The White Coat follows Purdue's opioid marketing, pharmaceutical patents, weight-loss drugs and the negotiations that decide what treatment costs you. It moves from the sales pitch to the patent, from the speaker's lunch to the pharmacy counter, asking who gets to call a price reasonable when the patient cannot afford to walk away.
Consider the negotiating position of a person in pain. The people setting the price can afford to keep talking. The person at the counter needs the prescription today. Somewhere between those two schedules, an industry has found a great deal of room for business.
I pay a professional to make my tax bill smaller. At the clinic where my housekeeper's sister works, they keep a collection jar. My financial problem gets an appointment. Hers gets a fundraiser.
I understand the appeal of a profitable arrangement. I have several. I also understand how much easier it is to discuss affordability when nobody is asking for your card. My concern for the patient becomes considerably more articulate after my own problems have been taken care of.
Expect corporate ambition, expensive evasions and the particular humiliation of needing something you cannot comfortably afford. Bring your questions about who benefits. The people with the answers have already billed for their time.
Please have your payment ready. Your pain has already been budgeted.