Nothing for Nothing

According to statistics, the direct costs of support and medical treatment of mental illnesses total $55.4 billion a year, a good deal of it paid by state and federal governments. I would like to tell you why I personally cost as much as I do. First I am on the atypical neuroleptic Risperdal that costs the government several hundred a month, although I pay just $5. I never asked for this expensive drug, I had no say in the matter. Although they say I will have to be on antipsychotics all my life, I have to get my prescription renewed every three months so I have to see a "professional" that charges $150 an hour (half paid by medicare, half by me) for "medical management". They never contact me to ever see if I am doing ok in between visits. If I pass a mental health underling in the hall on my way to my appointment and say, "Hi, how are you" they will write about it in your file and charge the government $20 for a quarter hour as part of your "case management". Nothing is for nothing in mental health world. After I read about the recent studies that older generic antipsychotics were as effective as the new ones, I photocopied the information and sent it to the "professional" that writes my prescription and told her that I wanted to save the government money and go on the cheap one. I see from my bill that the time she took to read it cost me another $18. I won't know until next month if she will let me change my prescription.