More Health Care Reform!

Well, I found out today that the FDA knows more about my health than the family doctor I've been seeing for 20 years.

I've had RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) for quite a while. I took an OTC quinine tablet for it, called Legatrin. But in 1997 the FDA banned OTC sales of quinine. For a while I drank some tonic water when the RLS kept me awake, but that made me make an extra trip or two to the bathroom.

So my doctor prescribed some generic quinine sulfate for me. The first filling of the prescription, for 90 tablets of 260 mg. each, lasted me for 3 years. I just take 1/4 of a tablet at the occasional times when the RLS wakes me up.

Now the FDA has banned the manufacture and sale of quinine sulfate by anyone but one drug compay. That one reportedly costs $4 per tablet, compared to 35 cents for the generic. I have no health insurance coverage and live on a fixed income. Of course, that makes no difference to them either.

The quinine can cause side effects, I'm sure. But I've been taking it for years with no problems, and so have about 3 million other people.

Apparently the FDA doesn't trust licensed MD's to only prescribe things that are safe. Or else the pharmaceutical industry has more pull with the FDA than individual consumers do.

Fortunately for me, there are many other sources where I can get my generic quinine and sleep at night.

Take a look at "FDA bans Quinine for Leg Cramps" at www.peoplespharmacy.com. I'd put in a link to the actual article but I can't paste text into the blog entries.

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On another health care reform topic, I have another suggestion or recommendation to reduce health care costs. My doctor was just telling me about the costs run up by patients demanding the latest, high-cost drugs, MRI's in 20 minutes instead of in 2 days, and a few other things. Well, I say that if the law would allow insurance companies to deny paying for prescription drugs that are advertised on television, then their costs would drop substantially. And the drug prices should drop too, from the savings of millions of dollars spent on T"V advertising.