Local Pharmacies Disappearing Partly Because of No Pay Co Pay; Is your Health at Risk?
"You have great insurance, at least for me," my pharmacist of 17 years, Paul Stephan of Care Rite in Long Beach, CA laughed. "I actually make $2.50 on your prescription, it's almost a winfall," he continued.
Surely, he jest. (No, he wasn't and I'll stop calling you Shirley).
Last year Americans filled 4.3 billion prescriptions to the tune of $374 billion dollars in revenue, so certainly the conduit to those drugs, the pharmacies, must be doing very, very well.
"It depends on who you are," Stephan continued. "If you're CVS or Walgreen's you're doing fine, but if you're an independent pharmacist or smaller store, you're pretty much struggling in today's world," he added.
Becoming a pharmacist is expensive, there's a lot of school and student debt. According to labor statistics it can pay off. The median annual salary for a pharmacist was $119,280, the best-paid 10 percent made $147,350, while the lowest-paid made $89,000. The best-compensated pharmacists are employed by merchandise stores.
"I could make a much better living if I worked for a major pharmacy chain," Stephan told me. "For several years, I've actually had to put money back in to my business," he reflected.
Why? How much does your insurance company pay the pharmacy on average when you pick up a prescription? And is this a good system of drug distribution for consumers or another way of exploiting the population for profits?
To find out and see the video interview continue reading here at karel.media