$4.00 Gas

[Sixpack70]

Actually we can live without a lot of the drugs if we are willing to change our diets, and no I am not talking becoming vegan. We can't live without oil in our current society. Most of the focus is on burning it as fuel, but a lot of other products come from oil including plastics. So while you may be able to live without the drug cocktail, if you are bleeding out and a messy pile on some surgeons operating table after a car wreck, then those oil based plastics are being used in all kinds of stuff to put you back together. The drugs we really do need investment and research in are antibiotics.

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

Remember when diesal was 35/40 cents cheaper than regular gas??Now it's 40 cents more per gallon.When the price goes up,and it's not going down,it comes right out of my pocket.When i'm real busy I can burn over $600 a week in fuel,,,,,,,,,with one truck:angryfire:

 

[Cranky]

Around here lately, diesel and regular gas are the same price....3.85 a gallon. And of course, my diesel truck needs repairs so I'm driving my gas truck all over until I can get the diesel fixed.

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

The big "D" in these parts is $4.35 to $4.55:angryfire:New Jersey is 30 miles to the east and it's almost .50 cheaper per gallon.It's all the extra taxes in NY:icon_shaking2:

 

[Bruzilla]

Im fortunate to be able to have almost all generic drugs as of right now, I take some 10 different meds per day.. All are generic but one, my breathing treatment i use Symbicort which is among the worse with cost, i know of no generic version of this but ill try what you say, if its possible they do ill get it .. Being it is so pricey i try not to use it very much which in turn is very unpleasant to deal with... Im not surprised at prices of medications but some i think are high priced for obvious reasons, Pain pills are higher, it would be easier to say no to my diabetic medicine as compared to dealing with chronic pain, they knowing this, in my opinion make the price to suit the purpose, the same with so many other drugs that they know we will not go without.. i take other drugs, all legal prescription drugs but my doctor gives me samples as much as possible such as the Lyrica for the pain in my feet that honestly sometimes gets so bad you think you could saw them off and not care. neuropathy is something i didn't understand at all before it happened, now its made me a believer. Ill check, maybe there's something other then i have that would be cheaper, but for the most part, everything is generic.. i didn't mean to start a drug discussion, but i am one who complains about the cost of all these that i have to have.. my dinner over and im trying to help a guy get his car running.. Good advice!! thank you.

Sorry to hear about your health. Just to reiterate a point, don't ask if there's a generic form of Symbicort (or any brand name drug still under patent) because the answer will always be "no". There are very, very, few health conditions for which there is only one drug, so just take the list to your doctor and ask if there is a drug on it that'll meet your needs as well as Symbicort.

Thanks for mentioning the free samples. The drug companies and your doctor work just like a drug network and pushers with these. The drug company gives your doctor a bunch of samples, which he/she "gives" you plenty of. It all seems so nice until you realize what they are doing is giving you the samples to get you accustomed to the drug, which ensures you'll be willing to pay for it when the samples run out. Some of my wife's former docs used to try to heap mountains of samples on her until they realized she knew what the scam was.

 

[Bruzilla]

Depending on the govt. to fix it, won't work,it never does, just look at their track record, we need other alternatives than govt. subsidizing everything... Look at Walmart, I'm not a big fan of them, but they found an affordable solution to a big problem, free market works...

You were right on the money until you wrote this. If the government had not implemented Medicare Part D, Walmart, nor anyone else, would have any of these discount generic plans. Walmart did not find an affordable solution. What they found was a government action had influenced the drug markets, by driving up demand for generics, and Walmart capitalized on the increased availability of these drugs.

Before Medicare D came out, only about 20% of the top 100 drugs prescribed for seniors were available as generics. By the end of the second year of the plan, 50% were available as generics, and by the end of year four, it was 77%. Also, it used to be that drug companies would make a new drug, sell it as a patented drug for seven years for whatever price the market would bear, then release a generic/OTC version while modifying the original formula a smidge and creating a new patent drug. Now that seniors, their biggest market, are saying no to high-cost patent drugs, we're seeing drug makers only selling patent drugs for 2-3 years before going generic or OTC, which lowers the costs for all of us.

Without Medicare Part D, none of this would have happened.

 

[Bruzilla]

Around here lately, diesel and regular gas are the same price....3.85 a gallon. And of course, my diesel truck needs repairs so I'm driving my gas truck all over until I can get the diesel fixed.

What's getting me is the price of E85 fuel. When I was in Pittsburgh last April, and gas prices were spiking, E85 was about 50 cents a gallon less than gasoline. Then I came back to Florida, and E85 was the same price as gasoline, and it's still like that down here.

 

[Cranky]

We only have E10 here and wish that crap wasn't here but when we still had 100% gas, there was no price difference.

 

[marlabuck]

Sorry to hear about your health. Just to reiterate a point, don't ask if there's a generic form of Symbicort (or any brand name drug still under patent) because the answer will always be "no". There are very, very, few health conditions for which there is only one drug, so just take the list to your doctor and ask if there is a drug on it that'll meet your needs as well as Symbicort.

Thanks for mentioning the free samples. The drug companies and your doctor work just like a drug network and pushers with these. The drug company gives your doctor a bunch of samples, which he/she "gives" you plenty of. It all seems so nice until you realize what they are doing is giving you the samples to get you accustomed to the drug, which ensures you'll be willing to pay for it when the samples run out. Some of my wife's former docs used to try to heap mountains of samples on her until they realized she knew what the scam was.

You are so right...last year we had to go to Olympia every Thursday to see a doctor that was treating my husband...he had to be monitored once a week for a heart thing...anyway, I use to sit out in our car and I would see all these people going into the doctor's office...men and women...very neatly dressed and all carrying sample cases...I finally asked the girl at the front dest who all these people were and she said they were drug company reps...wow,I told her it was a wonder that the doctor could even see the patients what with 20 drug reps coming thru the door...Marla

 

[Cranky]

A lot of doctors will only talk to a couple a week. How many doctors were in the place where you were waiting? Chances are that the 'reps' were only seeing a couple each. I just read an article about all the drug companies being allowed to advertise on the TV and radio since 06 I think it was. Kinda like the lawyers being able to advertise now but the new laws have allowed more people to access more scrip drugs and OD on them....