Health care reform can't come fast enough

The good news is that my pityriasis rosea spots are much faded and no longer itch. The bad news is that I've gotten a front row seat to our outrageously stupid, money-squandering health care system. This is the Chicago Moms Blog post I wrote about it.

"Your insurance saved you $260."

My eyes just about popped out of my skull reading that. I'd just picked up a topical foam I'd been prescribed to deal with a skin condition. I'd paid around $30, using my flex spending card. It would have been closer to $50 or $60, but my dermatologist had ever so kindly passed along a prescription discount card (basically a reusable coupon) from the drug company that made the product and that had brought the price down.

Basically, I was fighting a rash with $300 worth of name brand steroid-enhanced hair mousse. Steroid-enhanced hair mousse that left my skin less rashy, but as parched as the Sahara.

Since I was instructed to apply the product twice daily (and my rash pretty much covered my body), I finished off the foam in just over a week. So I called theWalgreen's prescription refill line. The pharmacist called right back: "Your insurance company is only going to pay for this once every 30 days. How is it possible you are done with it already? And how are you using it, exactly?" she asked.

I replied that I was putting the stuff all over, as directed by the doctor. "And are you, um, particularly, um, hairy?" the pharmacist inquired.

Turns out the $300 mousse was a proprietary alcohol-based formula designed specifically for scalp conditions. You know, cause people don't like to put greasy creams on their hair. In fact, the pharmacist told me the exact same active ingredient was available in generic in a cream or liquid formula. Which, aside from being a lot less expensive, would also be less drying to my skin.

Which got me thinking. Why would this dermatologist specifically prescribe a name brand product (instead of the generic) and hand me a coupon for the name brand product? Is his relationship with the pharmaceutical company that cozy? What exactly is the profit margin on a 100 gram can of topical steroid foam?

And what if I didn't have excellent, employer-sponsored health care coverage? Would I have shelled out $300 or just taken my chances? And what if I didn't have $300?

Overhauling our health care system is fraught with challenges, but it's clear to me that what we've got now--a profit-driven system that rewards costly care over quality care and neglects those who can't afford to buy in--is clearly broken.

Autism's snake-oil salesmen make me mad

I do not have a child with autism, but I know a number of families (mostly virtually) who have children "on the spectrum."

While some of these parents embrace their children's differences, raising a child who regularly acts out and doesn't connect with you emotionally can be heartbreaking, and a lot of people are desperate for a cure--something that will bring their kid back and allow them to move into the mainstream.

Unfortunately, where there is desperation, there are shamans and snake-oil salesmen ready to take advantage and profit from someone else's misery.

This weekend, the Autism One conference comes to Chicago. The keynote address will be delivered by Jenny McCarthy, a celebrity-turned-author who has made it her mission to cast doubt upon vaccine safety and promote autism "cures" backed largely by her own anecdotal evidence. Also on the schedule are Dr. Mayer Eisenstein and Dr. Mark Geier, promoting their "Lupron protocol," an unproven regimen of dosing autistic kids with a castration drug. The therapy is based on a theory, unsupported by mainstream medicine, that autism is caused by a harmful link between mercury and testosterone. Children with autism have too much of the hormone, according to the theory, and a drug called Lupron can fix that.

Now I understand that stressed-out parents are ready to hear--and try--anything. But the Lupron protocol is baseless; "more than two dozen prominent endocrinologists dismissed the treatment earlier this year in a paper published online by the journal Pediatrics." But what's the harm? Well, experts in childhood hormones warn that Lupron can disrupt normal development, interfering with natural puberty and potentially putting children's heart and bones at risk. The treatment also means subjecting children to daily injections, including painful shots deep into muscle every other week.

What will it take for the autism community to partner with scientists and work to find a cause (a genetic link has already been discovered) and a real cure--the kind backed by rigorous, double-blind studies? All the chatter over vaccines, diet, chelation and other quack theories and cures is drowning out the real information, guidance and support these families surely need.

My aunt's heart surgery starts at noon

My dear Aunt Susie (regular reader and occasional wacky commenter on this blog) is undergoing a quintuple bypass today at noon in Omaha. She felt some shortness of breath and an ache in her jaw on Monday and fortunately recognized those symptoms as the early signs of a heart attack that her cardiologist said she wouldn't have survived.

Please keep her in your thoughts and take a couple of minutes to educate yourself about heart disease.

Give your breastfed baby vitamins

If you're breastfeeding exclusively--particularly during the winter when babies get less exposure to sunlight--be sure to supplement with vitamin drops. According to the NY Times, rickets have shown up as an unexpected downside to the dramatic increase in breastfeeding rates. But don't give up nursing--just buy a cheap bottle of drops and make sure your baby is getting enough vitamin D.

Since Z was born in November, I was pretty religious about giving her those foul-smelling vitamins. I felt like I could get away with not supplementing Baby A since she was born in the summer and had started getting the occasional bottle of (vitamin-enriched) formula by the time she was 6 months old.

Anti-vaccination movement hits a tipping point

I think it is finally becoming clear that forgoing childhood vaccinations isn't a personal choice. It affects everyone. Vaccinations work on herd immunity. And we'll be seeing a lot more preventable--and very serious--diseases as more and more parents opt out based on bad science.

We can no more agree to disagree on this issue than we can on the creationism vs. evolution debate. There is a right answer.

Baby bottle update

I know you're all on pins and needles, waiting to hear what I've decided to do with my BPA-contaminated Ameda breastmilk storage bottles and my big collection of Avent bottles (apparently the best-selling brand in America). Well, I mentioned the baby bottle controversy to my friend Gloria, who hadn't heard much about it. But, conscientious parent that she is, she did her research and immediately tossed all of her toddler's sippy cups and replaced them with Born Free cups. She also bought two Born Free bottles from Whole Foods for her 3 month old. She would have bought more, but there is a major run on the brand.

Here's the part where I get rewarded for biding my time. Gloria had a stash of Playtex Nursers she wasn't using because of a suspected latex allergy in her infant. She gave them to me and A's taken to them just fine. As an added precaution, I'm pumping into my Ameda collection bottles, but immediately transfering the milk into a Playtex Nurser or a freezer bag.

And I have one less thing to worry about: the Gerber NUK pacifiers A's adopted are BPA-free.

Think you know what's safe to eat? Go fish!

Don't eat fish. Definitely not sushi. Chunk light tuna's okay. Chunk light tuna's higher in mercury than we thought. Don't eat swordfish. Do eat shrimp and salmon. What about smoked salmon?

Figuring out which fish is safe to eat during pregnancy is so difficult, many moms-to-be avoid seafood altogether. But apparently cutting back on fish can be bad for baby, too. BBC News quotes Professor of Nutrition Robert Grimble as saying, "The idea of fish being toxic has been around for a long time but this study seems to be saying that is a minor problem compared with the benefits you get from fish."

Apparently, low fish and seafood intake during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of poor behavior, motor, communication and social development scores.

Me, I'm a member of the everything-in-moderation camp, but I don't think I was hitting anywhere near the recommended 12 ounces of fish per week. Perhaps I'll indulge in a tuna melt this weekend. I've been wanting one for weeks.