Dare I say something nice about my medical insurance company?

[NNadir]

I have Medicare Part C from the much despised (here) United Healthcare.

They recently approved a very expensive drug (evolocumab/Repatha) that I suspect will add a few years to my life. Of course, I have a rather large deductible for medications about two grand - which happily I can afford to pay, understanding that there are many people who can't - but it's April, and for the rest of the year, everything is free.

That's not, however, why I am here to praise the company.

I'm a chemist, but when I went to college, it was with the idea of becoming a pharmacist, since I was filling prescriptions as a kid (under the direction of a pharmacist) in high school. After my first chemistry class I recognized that I could already count to a hundred, and read a label and a script, so I switched to a chemistry major. I wanted interesting work.

Over the decades, I've been sort of mystified about why becoming a pharmacist requires so much education, when a clerk can do most of the job. In most cases, when I have discussed medicinal chemistry with pharmacists over the years, I've been disappointed, although my current regular pharmacist strikes me as a knowledgeable guy.

Yesterday, I got a call from United Healthcare and I took it. It was their pharmacist, United Healthcare's pharmacist, on the phone, who was calling to discuss a possible drug/drug interaction and to advise me on alternatives, one of which would involve higher costs for her company. The conversation was at a high level, and during it, I indicated that I would take her up on her offer to contact my doctor to suggest changing my drug from the generic to the branded compound still under patent. Although the copay (to meet the deductible) would be $72 for a month's supply, she noted that since Ozempic and now Evolocumab had eaten up the deductible, it wouldn't hurt to move to the newer small molecule drug.

I have not had an experience like this in a very long time, if ever, a pharmacist doing what she is trained to do, help me and my doctor choose a medicinal option. (When I was a kid working in a hospital pharmacy as a tech, my boss tried to do this, but was shot down by administration and the medical staff.)

I know this is probably not the place to praise an insurance company, and yes, I would rather live in a world with Medicare for all, but where praise is due, I am unashamed to give it.

Don't shoot me.