Teeny, Tiny Bottles

Wife Rosalie just had both eyes done, cataracts removed, lenses implanted, a really neat bit of surgery that will allow her to see better than she’s seen in a long time. Okay, but then she’s required to put eye drops in periodically until the surgery is healed. Her doctor gave her three samples of a drop called Xibrom, an anti-inflammatory manufactured by Bausch and Lomb, Inc., to use on the first eye,.. These are teeny tiny bottles of drops, 2.5 milliliters, maybe the smallest bottles I’ve ever seen. She used them up on the first eye. No free samples for the second eye. Got the prescription filled: $137.38. Right, one teeny tiny bottle of Xibrom for $137.38. I’m pretty sure that 2.5 ml of gold wouldn’t cost that much. I can’t think of anything in that quantity that should cost that much. Not even some exotic form of happy juice, one drop of which would get you high for a week, should cost that much. How in the world can these drug companies justify that sort of cost? How can the people watch dogging such things (and surely we must have at least one bureau that’s watch dogging) allow such unconscionable prices to be charged? Is no one paying attention? Or does everyone who might do something about it just go, “Humph, not my job,” and go wandering on their way?