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The 1200% Increase in my Prescription Drug Costs

2011-01-24 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: civic or action cta, community lore, heavy topic

Hank, furious that the price of his ulcerative-colitis drug Asacol HD jumped from $50 to $620 a month when a patient savings card lapsed early, asks viewers to write civilly to Warner Chilcott's CEO and argues this must be fixed for everyone, not just him.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting: Hank is very pissed off and reorganizes his bookshelf to calm down

  • ★ Hank is very pissed off and reorganizes his bookshelf, one of the few things that calm him, while explaining why. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:11 — Ulcerative colitis, Asacol, Apriso and Asacol HD's patent extension; the pharmacy tells him the price rose from $50 to $620

  • ★★ Hank has ulcerative colitis, a chronic illness with no known cure, and has taken the medicine Asacol for about five years. — 00:00:11
  • ★★ Asacol's price kept rising; then Apriso, basically the same drug and significantly cheaper, came on the market, so Hank switched to it. — 00:00:25
  • ★★★ Hank says Asacol's maker then created Asacol HD just as Asacol was about to go generic: basically the same drug under a name different enough to extend its patent. — 00:00:37
  • ★★ Asacol used to cost Hank $300 a month; Asacol HD was offered to him at $50 a month. — 00:00:56
  • ★★★ After three months on Asacol HD, the pharmacy told Hank the price had gone up: $620 for him, which he calls a 1200% increase in one month. — 00:01:02

00:01:26 — The savings card's April Fools' expiry, a full 1-800 mailbox, and what people who can't afford it will do

  • ★★ Hank's patient savings card, which let him get the drug for $50 a month, lists an expiration date of April 1st, 2011 (April Fools' Day), yet already expired before then. — 00:01:26
  • ★ Hank jokes that, with the savings card's April Fools' Day expiry, the drug company is 'just playing a little joke' on everyone who relies on its medication, a date he later calls 'obviously just made up for fun'. (joke) — 00:01:43
  • ★★ Calling the card's 1-800 number, Hank got a long-wait message and then a mailbox that was full. — 00:01:50
  • ★★★ Hank can afford it and has medication left over, but asks what people who can't afford it will do; there is no reason the price of medication should go up. — 00:02:13
  • ★★ Hank says it is the same medication the company has been making for twenty years. — 00:02:25
  • ★★ Warner Chilcott did not try to contact Hank's doctor to work something out before the colossal 1200% increase in the cost of the medication, Hank says. — 00:02:28

00:02:39 — Hank contacts Warner Chilcott's CEO and asks viewers to email him civilly; make Warner Chilcott a curse word

  • ★★ Hank spent much of the weekend finding ways to contact Warner Chilcott, the drug's maker; he found its CEO's phone number to call him, and emailed CEO Roger Boissonneault. — 00:02:39
  • ★★★ Hank puts the CEO's email address in the description and asks viewers to think about the situation complexly, be civil, and tell him how they feel about what his company has done. — 00:02:59
  • ★★ If Warner Chilcott does not change the policy, Hank thinks John and Nerdfighteria should make 'Warner Chilcott' a new curse word; he later uses it as a verb. (playful) — 00:03:10 · Nerdfighteria, John Green
  • ★★ Companies will only stop doing 'BS like this' if people stand up to it and say it is not okay, Hank says. — 00:03:20

00:03:29 — Asks John to help him think complexly; not a 'me issue', fix it for everyone; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank asks John, in his next video, to help him understand the situation complexly and stop being so pissed off; there are much greater injustices in the world. — 00:03:29 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank stresses this is not a 'me issue': he can be fixed, but it needs fixing for everyone, telling companies it is not okay to treat people like this. — 00:03:41

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description asks viewers to write a nice letter to Roger Boissonneault asking why the price rose so much, why the programme expired four months early, and why his doctor was not contacted. — video description · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Likening the lapsed $50 savings card to a heroin deal's 'first time's free', Hank says drug companies apparently use the same marketing strategies as drug dealers. (playful) — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Asacol · Asacol HD · health care prices in the United States · ulcerative colitis (concept) · Warner Chilcott

Also: April Fools' Day · Apriso · evergreening · Roger Boissonneault

Only in the description or credits: pharmaceutical industry

Also centred on health care prices in the United States: The Political Situation at the County Fair · Health Care Reform Thought Bubble · Question Tuesday! Paula Deen Riding Me (and critical reading) · Why Are American Health Care Costs So High? · Is Obamacare Working? The Affordable Care Act Five Years Later · Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals

Also centred on ulcerative colitis (concept): Health Care Reform: The Hank Factor · Your Illness is Not Your Fault · How to Get a Colonoscopy · The Sudden Obliteration of Expectation

Also centred on Warner Chilcott: I OWN WARNER CHILCOTT! · Many Truths, 1 Lie!

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 6 videos, 2011-01-24 – 2011-02-04.