Joni Mitchell once wisely wrote (and sang) “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” Although she was talking about the environment and a relationship, those words can apply to some other things in 2020. One is the US Postal Service.
Many people take the USPS for granted. It’s been there all their lives, and is known for its reliability and dedication. Going to the post office is a boring chore, and we complain every time the price of postage rises.
But recently, the postal service has become a political issue, with the President and Postmaster General decreasing funding and extra hours for postal workers. You could argue, though, that this has been a long time coming. As this episode of the Secretly Incredibly
Fascinating podcast explains, the US Postal Service was set down the road to debt and shutdown with legislation passed in the mid-2000’s.
With even tighter restrictions now in place, Americans are starting to feel the effects. One of the most striking and troubling changes is medication delivery. Patients who rely on the regular delivery of often life-saving medications are experiencing delays. Sometimes, these delays are so bad that they’re forced to go to a pharmacy…which isn’t an ideal thing for an at-risk person to do in the middle of a pandemic.
And of course, that's among the best-case scenarios. Other people may have to wait out the delays if their insurance or budget won't allow them to purchase their prescriptions directly from a pharmacy, or if they have no way of getting to one.
Read on to learn more about how delays are affecting medication deliveries for some patients, and how they’re adapting.
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