Driving to Boston Last Week

Thoughts driving to and from Boston Thursday, September 8, 2016

The two hour drive to Boston is beautiful any time of year.

In autumn, the rich reds and oranges of the leaves appear as if on fire, lighting my way.  In winter, the white snow glistening on the branches seems magical to this California girl who didn’t see falling snow until the age of 21. In the spring, the leaves in their young and delicate chartreuse signal that life is returning to their branches. And now in summer, the rich deep green leaves bring to mind all the life they support, from the tiniest insect to the magnificent hawks circling their prey.

The drive is my time to listen to the classical music that I love, to be alone with my thoughts, to ponder the world around me, and to solve problems that I hadn’t had time to consider earlier.

Thursday, the problem that concerned me was the Epi pen price gouging, which brought to mind the pills that were prescribed for my mother’s cancer.

When my 95-year-old mother got to the pharmacy counter to pick up the pills, she was told they were not covered by Medicare and that they would cost $2,500!!! For a month’s supply!!! She told the clerk she did not have that kind of money, and left without them.

Some weeks later a social worker called and worked out a plan that allowed her to afford the medicine. But why does it cost so much in the first place? Someone is paying the drug company that money. Someone is paying for those Epi pens, and I’ll bet these two examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Supposedly the drug companies need to charge a lot because they have to pay the scientists. But I would suggest that they’re not paying the scientists nearly as much as they are paying for commercials!!

Every baseball game or tennis match I watch is surrounded by many, many, Viagra and Cialis commercials.

And that little purple pill, and the incontinence commercials are everywhere. Those ads must cost millions if not billions. So I think our CONGRESS SHOULD BAN TV AND RADIO COMMERCIALS FOR MEDICINES!!!  Those billions could then be used to lower prescription prices. We ordinary people do not need to be inundated with medicine commercials. We don’t write prescriptions, doctors do.

So now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’d like to thank you for reading today’s blog,  and I’d love to know your thoughts on this.

My next blog will be about actual travel. It will reach you from Schleswig Holstein, in northern Germany.