A couple of very close acquaintance on a very low pension are provided

with a regular supply of the following drugs and medical resources, prescription, according to need, entirely free of charge. They must have fergetted the Death Panel... That was a narrow squeak!


Husband

Nasonex Nasal Spray $40 (lasts a month)
Atorvastatin 30 tablets $61
Dutasteride 500 micrograms
Temazepam 10mg 30 capsules $12.99
Xatral xl 10 mg 100 tablets $149 (approx. 3 months' supply, seemingly)
Glyceryl Trinitrate tabs 500 mcrograms
Omeprazole caps 10 mg
Clopidogrel tabs 75mg
with the following drugs and medical devices, on prescription and entirely free. They must have fergetted the dreaded Death Panel!


Wife

Adcal D3 Lemon tabs
Lansoprazole 50/50 sw/liquid paraffin 500g disp
Creon 10000 Gastro Resistant caps
Oilatum emollient EMULS
Furosemide tabs 40 mg
Novofine needles screw-on 31gm 6mm
OneTouch Ultrasoft Lancet 0.44 28 Gauge
Novomix 30 Flexpen Prefilled Pen 3ml INJ100 UNITSM
One Touch Ultra Strip Blood Glucose Testing 50
Spironolactone tabs 100mg

NB
All of these are supplied on a regular basis, according to medical need, ie most of them daily doses.
Also, regular daily supply of Clinutren food supplement, various medical interventions, and in the past major surgery and relatively minor surgery.

I started trying to cost it all in American dollars, but it's late at night. Feel free to take over, if you want.

...and I'm as fit as a butcher's dog, until I get up from the 'pooter.

the husband; very active, the wife.

What did you imagine? They are little more than placebos? Sounds to me your username could be on the mark. If you got any closer to the Centre, you'd fall off the end of the Right wing.

I've heard of cases where someone goes to a new doctor, meds are reduced, and the patient gets better.

Overmedication is not uncommon.

we(!) need, we get. I'd need to be a prosperous lwayer to be able to afford that level of medication for us, and the operations and other medical interventions and assistance would be out of the question. So I rather suspect your solicitude concerning overmedication in this context is just a little bit inappropriate.

Also, wrong medication would very seldom be an issue here. If one drug doesn't work, or has undesirable side-effects, another is tried, according to the data concerning the patient at the doctor's disposal.

Nor is it only our GPs who are extremely professional. If it's the weekend, the person on the other end of the phone who takes down your particulars for the purpose, and then the nurse she refers you to, again on the phone, are both very thorough - a counter-check, I expect. The nurse will then arrange for you to see a physician at your local hospital within a few hours - unless it is more urgent.

In my case, the young lady GP working at the hospital I saw, the other week, referred me to another young lady doctor, an opthalmologist, at another hospital several miles away. She confirmed what the GP had thought, that there was a small abrasion on my eye-ball, and gave me a tube of Chloramphenicol, to apply to my lower eyelid three times a day. I paid zilch and, presumably, possible complications were avoided, as well as the discomfort, relieved. And guess what? The rich people are still rich.

we know where this couple lives and how they receive their care.

I can point you to elders in my community that receive similar medications at no cost, but I can also take you to the local Walgreens where, if we hang out at the pharmacy counter for an hour, we'll see old folks ask the pharmacist how much will the copay be on these prescriptions, and then the walk away without the medicine because they can't afford the copay.