Published in Reproductive Health Reality Check, November 2009.

This is a pretty minor thing, in the grand scheme of things, but it’s yet another tiny little facet of the American health care system which is broken. While I’m waiting for my correctly prepared prescription, I watch people go through the line. People with MediCal or Medicare or CMSP or any number of other welfare programs get to the counter, hear that a prescription has been denied, and shuffle away without it. People with private insurance get told that the authorization for a prescription hasn’t come through, or it’s been denied, and they look at the prescription and the price on the register, and they walk away without it. I can tell that the people who know they will have to pay cash, like me, arrive at the counter and weigh their options; pick up the prescription today, put off grocery shopping another week?

Read more at Reproductive Health Reality Check.