4.02.2005

Pharmacists Who Won't Fill Prescriptions

While I join the list of those who give good credit to the governor of Illinois for passing an emergency bill that requires prescriptions to be filled, I'd like to add that it's preposterous we need a bill to do this.

If a pharmacist has ethical qualms about filling "certain types" of prescriptions, let them go collect garbage, get a contractor's job with Halliburton in Iraq or get a position where they get to ask, "Would you like fries with that?"

At one job I had, our health insurance - specially crafted by the institution where I worked - allowed for contraceptive medication, something I took as a medical necessity for abnormal menses. But if I went to fill my prescription on certain days of the week, I got lectured to by a pious, holier than thou, "I got six kids at home and if my wife would let me near her, I'd have six more" pharmacist, and then usually did not get my prescription. On the rare occasion this "professional" did fill it, he would write little notes on the order stating I should get married and I wouldn't need the prescription. Why, yes, let's ALL have 15 kids.

But getting married wasn't the issue for me. Without the prescription, I would bleed so severely during an event that happened every four weeks that I would become dangerously anemic. But this "professional" couldn't see past his own twisted sense. I resolved this by getting a few other female staffers together and going through the chain of command to have this man not allowed to fill female employee prescriptions. I would have been happier to have him fired, but...