It seems like these last 12 months have been a whirlwind of well-intentioned folks thinking they know better than us about how to make healthcare-related decisions.
We all know about ObamaCare. Polls show that very few of us wanted it, yet it passed. What's up with that? Don't our lawmakers listen to us? Maybe they will listen to our votes.
Now there is a bill in the Nevada Legislature that made it all the way through to the deadline for passing bills out of each house. Good news is that it was withdrawn by the sponsor ... this time. The bad news is that it even saw the light of day. (Watch out for the next session.)
What is it you ask? SB 203 of course. The bill would require a prescription to purchase cold medicine containing pseudo ephedrine, which is common in cold and allergy medicine.
Imagine for a moment. You go to bed feeling "funny" and wake up at 2 a.m. with a throbbing headache, scratchy throat, runny nose and realize, you've got the beginnings of a doozy of a cold. You drag yourself out of bed, look around in the medicine cabinet for some Sudafed or Actifed or Sinufed, or Claritin-D or Zyrtec-D or MucinexD or Allegra D or TheraFlu and there isn't any left in the house.
"No problem!" You say to yourself. "We live in a 24-hour state." You decide to go down to the local store (Walgreen's or Walmart or Raleys or Save-Mart or CVS, etc.) and pick up something before you get any sicker and can't work.
When you arrive at the store, you look in the cold medicine isle and there is a sign that says, "All cold medicine must be purchased at the pharmacy counter by a certified pharmacist." You look at the pharmacy counter and it's closed with a sign that says, "Normal Business Hours 9 a.m. - 8 p.m." You groan as you realize that you wasted your time and got no relief and also realize that you will first have to call your doctor (who isn't in until 9 a.m.) to get a prescription to purchase the aforementioned cold medicine. Now instead of the medicine costing $12, adding on the doctor fee, it will cost you $112, and you're going to get a lot sicker before you can get any relief.
All this because some jerk uses these medicines to make meth in Mexico, not in Nevada.
What is it recently that in trying to "fix" our medical system, legislators keep making it worse? I'm glad this bill died. What will come next though? Please legislators, leave our medical system alone. We have enough real pains to deal with. We don't need any more legislatively inflicted pains added to our lives.
Next column I will go into detail on some of the "headaches" of Obamacare for businesses.
Did you hear? ObamaCare medications should be hidden under the seat during traffic stops.
• Kelly Bullis is a Certified Public Accountant in Carson City. Contact him at 882-4459.
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