dwcap, there’s always other alternatives if low estrogen birth control is what your gf is looking for. she can discuss with her ob/gyn at kaiser and they can always do an exception code if they feel medically the medication makes sense.

the point here is there’s a lot more checks and balances in kaiser as opposed to regular ppo plans.

as for edna’s blanket anti-generic sentiment. remember we are all paying for her preferance for Branded medicine here.

except here’s another example:

after prilosec ran out of patent, AstraZeneca produced prilosec’s isomer, nexium along with the full on “Purple Pill” ad campaign.

there is no scientific evidence that nexium is really better than prilosec. annedotally, nexium might occasionally allow someone with reflux to continue to enjoy Mexican food with beer better than prilosec.

cost of nexium? $1840 per year per patient.

cost of prilosec? $240 per year per patient.

2006 total sale was $5 billion.

had all that folks took prilosec generic instead of nexium, we would have saved $4.4 billion.

I can honestly say no lives were saved or made better by spending that extra $4.4 billion using nexium instead of prilosec.

the choice of Brand vs generic, be it birth control or acid relief, does make a huge difference in controlling health care cost. the question now is, do you want your doctor to make that decision or do you want to have things get to a point where we would have no choice but hand that decision to the government?