While I was there, I asked my doctor about all the pharmaceutical ads in TV. I asked him if he ever got questions from patients about drugs they had seen advertised, and he said he gets them all the time.
I told him I was a little surprised - that I didn't see any way big Pharma could cost justify the millions they spent advertising things only available by prescription.
He said it might have made sense in the past, but now he thought they were wasting money - that it isn't big Pharma, or even your doctor that determines what prescriptions you get, it's your insurance company.
He told me he wrote a scrip last month for something (I forget the name) that was supposed to be covered, then got a call from the patient saying that not only would their insurance not pay for it, a one month supply was going to cost them $9,000.
He said that he could write prescriptions for Eliquis (for example) all day, but most insurance won't pay for it so why bother - why not just stick with something that insurance will pay for?
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