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Feb. 26th, 2008
Prescriptions
Feb. 26th, 2008 09:03 pmGrowing up in the States, I took it for granted that if you want practically any medicine more exotic than a baby aspirin, you have to have a note from your doctor saying you're allowed.
Then I moved to Qatar, where medical care is a bit more of a free-for-all. If I want birth control pills, I wander into the nearest pharmacy and grab some from the shelf, without my OB-GYN using it as leverage to get me in for an annual checkup. I can walk right into an optician and tell them I need some -3.75 diopter contact lenses and, by gum, they sell me -3.75 diopter contact lenses. If that's not what I needed, I have nobody to blame but myself. Hard-core things like opiates are by prescription only, but the rule of thumb is that if it's not at high risk of abuse or misuse, then you can probably waltz into a pharmacy and buy it.
I'm sure much thought is given to whether a product should be prescription or non-prescription in the States, but I realize I know very little about the justifications involved. What is the reasoning that says I can, at will, buy enough Tylenol to put me in a hepatic coma, but I need the permission of an optometrist to put pieces of silicone on my eyeballs?
Antibiotics seem like an interesting case here. They're not susceptible to abuse in the same sense as opiates, but certainly they can be misused, and their misuse can lead to drug-resistant bacteria. I'm particularly sensitive to the problems of letting people use antibiotics willy-nilly, since my last run-in with bacteria was with drug-resistant ones. On the other hand, right now I am having yet another run-in with bacteria, and I need antibiotics. I know I need them, there is no doubt that I need them, but I can't have them until I find a doctor to convince of this. Unfortunately the bacteria were inconsiderate enough to strike after 5 p.m., and thus the only doctors available are in the ER conveniently located across the street from my hotel. There are, however, around two dozen people waiting in said ER, and they all look sicker than me. So I get to wait until tomorrow morning (meanwhile hoping the bacteria don't decide to seek lebensraum in my kidneys) all so I can persuade somebody to let me have the medicine I already know I need.
I joke sometimes that living in a paternalistic state like Qatar is turning me into a libertarian. It's not really true. But right now, facing one of the few issues where the U.S. is more paternalistic than Qatar, I do resent needing the permission of someone I don't have access to in order to do what I know will make me better.
Then I moved to Qatar, where medical care is a bit more of a free-for-all. If I want birth control pills, I wander into the nearest pharmacy and grab some from the shelf, without my OB-GYN using it as leverage to get me in for an annual checkup. I can walk right into an optician and tell them I need some -3.75 diopter contact lenses and, by gum, they sell me -3.75 diopter contact lenses. If that's not what I needed, I have nobody to blame but myself. Hard-core things like opiates are by prescription only, but the rule of thumb is that if it's not at high risk of abuse or misuse, then you can probably waltz into a pharmacy and buy it.
I'm sure much thought is given to whether a product should be prescription or non-prescription in the States, but I realize I know very little about the justifications involved. What is the reasoning that says I can, at will, buy enough Tylenol to put me in a hepatic coma, but I need the permission of an optometrist to put pieces of silicone on my eyeballs?
Antibiotics seem like an interesting case here. They're not susceptible to abuse in the same sense as opiates, but certainly they can be misused, and their misuse can lead to drug-resistant bacteria. I'm particularly sensitive to the problems of letting people use antibiotics willy-nilly, since my last run-in with bacteria was with drug-resistant ones. On the other hand, right now I am having yet another run-in with bacteria, and I need antibiotics. I know I need them, there is no doubt that I need them, but I can't have them until I find a doctor to convince of this. Unfortunately the bacteria were inconsiderate enough to strike after 5 p.m., and thus the only doctors available are in the ER conveniently located across the street from my hotel. There are, however, around two dozen people waiting in said ER, and they all look sicker than me. So I get to wait until tomorrow morning (meanwhile hoping the bacteria don't decide to seek lebensraum in my kidneys) all so I can persuade somebody to let me have the medicine I already know I need.
I joke sometimes that living in a paternalistic state like Qatar is turning me into a libertarian. It's not really true. But right now, facing one of the few issues where the U.S. is more paternalistic than Qatar, I do resent needing the permission of someone I don't have access to in order to do what I know will make me better.