by Jenny Berkeley, RN, Health Educator

A Bouctouche, N.B., woman is taking her fight with the province’s Department of Health over the lack of funding for her prescription drug costs to the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.

Josee Owen, 36, has had rheumatoid arthritis since she was 10 and now takes the drug Enbrel.

Even though she has partial medical insurance coverage through her employer, she still pays $370 a month — about eight per cent of her income — to cover the cost of the medication.

It is terribly unfortunate that Josee has to endure the pain and suffering that rheumatoid arthritis brings. No one who has suffered with the disease can deny that. It is even more terrible that she has had to deal with this sickness since she was a child. No one can deny that childhood degenerative diseases are a travesty.

Normally one would say that according to economics, when the price of an item is too high, we look for comparable substitutes or put off purchasing the item. But in the case of our health, rational thinking and the economics seems to go out the window. In this case Josee has stated that the substitutes did not work and putting off the purchase of the drugs would lead to unbearable pain and suffering. Josee is in a hard place, no doubt.

My issue here is with Josee taking that New Brunswick Department of Health to the Human Rights Commission. There are three main points of fundamental importance here. But before we go into those points I wish to preface my statements with my belief that good health is our birthright and keeping it is our choice. Those of you who read my eZine or my blog or have been my clients know that I stand firmly behind this belief.

It should be common knowledge that most drugs are tremendously overpriced. The ones that are protected by the patents have monopolistic power of price gauging. The drugs that are off patent or the generics are more reasonably priced due to greater competition in the marketplace. Josee is seeking redress from the Department of Health and they are neither involved in the drug manufacture or it’s pricing. The drug company is responsible for this. If Josee’s fundamental right to treatment is being comprised, it is my opinion that the manufacture withholding treatment via their predatory pricing of the drug in question. In fact, the Health Department of the New Brunswick should be an advocate on Josee’s behalf in this situation.

Point #2: Drugs Have So Many Negative (Side) Effect
It’s important here to understand that long term use of any drug produces changes in the way your body functions in order to deal with the drugs. These changes may be subtle or distinctly noticeable but they do occur. No drug is exempt from this rule of nature. Can a truly sustainable solution for the body really be found in having the government pay for more drugs to put into the body? Drugs can lead to so many things such as chronic dehydration, and a loss of vitamins, minerals and enzymes in the body.  Josee needs to be fully aware of what she is really seeking here. Does she want more  of the same or a better life? Are more drugs the vehicle for that path which she desires?

Today there is so much information about alternative treatments and conventional treatments, their successes and their failures. There are hundreds of books by credible MDs, NDs and even nurses like myself.  The knowledge of every disease looking at it from the front, the back, inside, outside and in relation to the other factors is all out there. There is so much information that one only needs to look. Someone told me they read that to become proficient in anything one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours on that thing.  Josee has lived with the pain of the disease since age ten so no doubt she is proficient in the pain and suffering of the disease. However she needs to become proficient in the biological cause, the result of the disease on her tissues and her mind, and then consider all the other alternative therapies that have even some measure of success.

Perhaps she does not believe there is a cure. So the first change is required in her mind. Josee needs to want to be FREE of this disease plaguing her life and robbing her of her right to happiness. From there, I would say a visit to Hippocrates Health Institute would be in order or at the very least speak with open-minded health practitioners in New Brunswick.

Josee, my heart goes out to you, as it does to so many of the people I see suffering unnecessarily from diseases when FREEDOM from those diseases are possible.  My people truly do perish because of a lack of knowledge.  The price of ignorance is far higher than any predatory drug price. It is the price of your birthright to good health. Get knowledgeable today.

Peace and be well.

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Tags: arthritis, drug costs, drugs, E4E, health, human rights, jenny berkeley, love, rheumatoid arthritis, solutions