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WEDNESDAY AUGUST 8 2007 4:00 PM

Supermarket Special: Free Drugs

Submitted by Rahodeb

Edited by Rahodeb

Who doesn't like free drugs? Even if we're just talking antibiotics, free drugs have a special allure all their own. In view of that, and in the ultimate sales promotion, the Publix supermarket chain, with over 900 stores throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee, is offering a free drug program to customers with prescriptions for amoxicillin, cephalexin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, penicillin VK, erythromycin, ampicillin, and ciprofoxacin.

If I lived in one of the states that house Publix markets, I can assure you that the compulsive, druggie-hoarder in me would be on the phone, demanding a cipro prescription from my doctor right now. Just to have, you know? In the medicine cabinet. Because there's something comforting about knowing it's there.

Seriously, thoughthis is an interesting little commentary (intended or notI'm guessing "not" on the American health care system in the wake of Michael Moore's Sicko, and the ensuing debate that it sparked. With health care costs one of the biggest challenges facing many Americans, and political loons on both the left and the right arguing about the issues, it's interesting to see the private sector taking a leadership stance.

Publix CEO Charlie Jenkins Jr. said that in addition to obviously wanting to increase Publix pharmacy sales, the company was looking for a way to alleviate at least some small part of the health care costs that plague Americansespecially those without insurance .

Publix customer Barbara Lemay had this to say:

"I've been on antibiotics occasionally, and to get anything free with the price of medications today is phenomenal," she said. "People just can't afford the medications. You have no insurance, you're looking at hundreds of dollars a month."

Lemay, who gets Social Security benefits, said if she is prescribed one of the antibiotics she definitely would go to Publix to get it, and said it could save her "thousands of dollars."

Publix is actually the first large regional chain to offer certain drugs at no cost, although Wal-Mart, Kmart, and some other retailers do offer discounted drug programs. Now, if they would just provide free birth control, then they'd really be onto something.

I'd like to dedicate this to the gang over at the Publix table:

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Comments

SockPuppet

I'm lost

July 2006

AUG 08, 2007 05:37 PM

sickboyedd said:
I wonder what effect this will have on the antibiotic resistance of bacteria. I just hope that if they're free or cheap, people will take the whole course because they don't have to worry about the costs...

+1. More little pals for MRSA, I suspect. It's not as though people know what antibiotics are useful for (i.e. not viruses) or like taking pills.

xo_b_mac

Markham, ON

June 2007

AUG 08, 2007 05:39 PM

stringtheory182 said:
meh, they're just antibiotics. i thought something revolutionary was going on here.

What type of drugs were you hoping for??

Tiger_Fodder

Braintree, MA

June 2007

AUG 08, 2007 06:03 PM

More ways to make antibiotic resistant super bugs. Just in time to clean up a bit in Florida.

ogichida30

Concord, CA

September 2004

AUG 08, 2007 06:29 PM

blazenlow1313 said:

ogichida30 said:
Wal mart offers discount drug programs but wont even insure its employees??? Go figure.

walmart offers insurance to there employees. pretty good insurance too. they just like to fire women who take maternity leave and then have to take and extra week off to care for their sick mothers.

Maybe in Jersey they might offer insurance, but out here in CA taxpayers subsidized over 80 million in healthcare to walmart employees last year alone.

collitchboy

La Vergne, TN

October 2004

AUG 08, 2007 06:45 PM

I would put money on antibiotic resistance going up because people will probably take them until they are better and stop, as they do now. Most will probably use the reasoning that they can "just get more for free" if the they get sick again.

Add that with the fact a lot of people probably take antibiotics for stuff other than bacterial infections. Now that they are free I see even more "bug" trouble ahead.

stuck_e

Norcross, GA

February 2006

AUG 08, 2007 07:20 PM

As a 29 year old diabetic with no insurance, I can say for a fact that, well at least in the southern states, if you are young and have a job, you are fucked when it comes to healthcare. Myself I am taking about $500.00 bucks a month worth of med to keep my disease at bay, a disorder that if you get any other run of the mill sickness will kick your ass, and put your sugars out of wack, which means you have to go to the doctor even more and pay out the ass yet again for run of the mill drugs that thank god Publix is handing out for free. I know my sick ass will be on the phone with my doc first thing in the morning and get me a tree month supply of each listed. Now only if they would give out drugs that i actually take on a daily basis... better yet make it to where i can get insurance in the state of GA, or some type of help from the tax money that is taken from my check every week that could be paying for some of this shit..... Oh well that is a rant better left for another day.

Stuckey: The Monkey King

kinghell

Portland, OR

July 2003

AUG 08, 2007 07:59 PM

collitchboy said:
I would put money on antibiotic resistance going up because people will probably take them until they are better and stop, as they do now. Most will probably use the reasoning that they can "just get more for free" if the they get sick again.

Yeah, poor people are way too fucking stupid to follow simple directions. I don't know why we even bother giving them meds in the first place.

(That was your point, right?)