The elderly man spoke, pulling out an empty dicine box from his pocket and showing it to the staff.
Worried that the other person might not have seen it, he raised the empty box and pointed at it: "This is the one."
The staff only glanced at it, pretending not to see, and continued to chatter away: "Sir, if you don’t want to buy this dicine, that’s fine. We have another dicine here, which has similar ingredients to the one you ntioned, but it’s specifically for your symptoms. Why don’t I get it for you to take a look?"
"I just want this one. If you don’t have it, I’ll go check at other pharmacies." Thinking about his limited budget, the old man looked unusually firm.
"Sir, the dicine you’re talking about isn’t covered by insurance, and its effectiveness isn’t as good as these two I ntioned. I’m doing it for your benefit—these two dicines can be reimbursed by insurance, whereas the one you’re asking for has to be paid out of pocket, and ends up costing more than these two."
"I just want this one."
"Do you have it or not? If not, I’ll leave."
The staff at Huian Pharmacy clearly didn’t expect to et such a stubborn old man, feeling a bit helpless, nodded: "We do have it, but we don’t sell much of it now, so we don’t stock much. I don’t even know where it’s kept; it’ll take a while to find it. If you’re in a hurry, I can get these two dicines for you."
The old man said nonchalantly, "It’s fine, I can wait."
The staff was truly at a loss this ti. Although they couldn’t sell the two dicines they wanted, the custor couldn’t be let go just like that. So, they had to turn back and search for the dicine for the old man.
In no ti, the clerk ca out holding a box of dicine: "Sir, is this the one?"
The old man glanced at it, compared it with the one he had, and seeing that the dicine boxes were identical, he broke into a delighted smile: "Yes, yes, this is it. How much is it?"
"13."
"It’s even a yuan cheaper than the last ti I bought it."
The old man happily paid the money and was ready to leave with the dicine.
"Sir, your dicine isn’t as effective as this one." But before he could turn away, the staff called him back.
The old man extended his hand to show them: "Didn’t bring enough money."
Staff: "..."
Watching the old man walk out the door with the dicine, the staff felt like crying without tears, realizing that after all this persuasion, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to buy, he just didn’t bring enough money. Why didn’t he say so earlier?
Had they known that, they wouldn’t have wasted all that breath.
After talking for over ten minutes, with a dry mouth, they didn’t even have ti to drink water.
Seeing the pharmacy staff at a loss from the old man, so couldn’t help but laugh.
However, despite wanting to laugh, they felt an indescribable discomfort inside.
They wondered, if the old man had enough money, would he have ended up buying the dicine he didn’t want and not getting the one he originally intended to buy?
Spending money but not getting what you want, is this really a good thing?
Moreover, the dicines reimbursed by insurance are generally expensive, even shockingly so.
For example, a dicine that typically sells for ten yuan could sell for fifteen or even twenty once it’s covered by insurance; so dicines even double in price.
To be honest, the old man who didn’t bring enough money really saved quite a bit.
But while this old man was lucky, there are those who aren’t so fortunate.
Many co to buy dicine but end up not buying what they intended.
Knowing that commonly used dicine is relatively cheaper, they end up being tricked into buying the expensive ones.
Watching this unfold, Lu Xuan suddenly thought of a phrase often seen online:
"No price drops," "drop in price and perish."
Once a particular dicine is priced low, pharmacies imdiately remove it from shelves, manufacturers stop production, and you simply can’t get the cheap option.
Isn’t this akin to the depraved capitalism during economic crises when milk is dumped into sewers?
Supply, demand, price, profit margin are all dictated by them, making it easy to make money.
Pharmacy rchants have lost their conscience, but what about ourselves?
Lu Xuan thought of a word.
It’s "cheap."
The more developed society becos, the cheaper it gets.
Raising kids always calculating, lacking calcium? Lacking zinc? Lacking selenium? Might as well eat the entire periodic table.
Lu Xuan himself was fortified and refined in such a way in his youth. Later, when it didn’t feel right anymore, and after Lu Guoquan opened a clinic, hearing about so things, he stopped all that supplentation. Basically, he didn’t supplent anything, just ate fish and shrimp, gnawed on big bones, ate vegetables and fruits, drank milk, and ended up not only healthy but in great shape.
However, he also knew that this couldn’t be said to be one’s own fault, but rather that buyers can’t outsmart sellers.
Those selling dicine hope folks get sick; how can they not fall ill?
"What’s wrong with this society?" Ji Xiuwen gazed at the pharmacy ceiling, although he had seen such things before, yet this ti, he felt even more emotional.
"Always feel like everyone’s sick!" Lin Yongzhen thought aloud.
Lu Xuan looked at both of them solemnly and uttered: "People aren’t sick, the dicine is."
The two were montarily puzzled, then exchanged glances.
People aren’t sick, the dicine is.
There shouldn’t be more pharmacies than grocery stores. Issues with dical reps, dicine mark-ups, over-treatnt of minor ailnts, all need fixing.
Once these are sorted out, the dicine will naturally get better.
But, everyone knew, saying it is simple, getting it done is incredibly difficult.
The reason being, there are too many vested interests.
Regulating this industry, you offend too many people. This road isn’t just hard to walk, not only is the resistance trendous, but ahead on this road, there’s a wall of steel with unknown length, thickness, and height.
Can’t get around it, and it’s impossible to get through.
Heavy-hearted, a group walked into the pharmacy.
The woman who didn’t manage to push the sale earlier still had traces of disappointnt on her face, not sure whether it was because the old man didn’t bring enough money, or because her pitch failed to persuade him.
But as she was about to turn and leave, the appearance of Lu Xuan and his group rekindled her hopes, with a habitual smile she ca forward, voice preceding her: "Are you here to buy dicine?"
"Is sothing uncomfortable, or..."
"We have professional licensed physicians here who can recomnd dications tailored for you."
Underneath the professional smile was ceaseless persuasion.
Having just experienced that relentless chatter, Lu Xuan and his group showed no surprise on their faces.
"Can you prepare traditional Chinese dicine here?" Lu Xuan disregarded the thirty-sothing woman’s pitch and directly stated his intention, to avoid getting other dications promoted to them.
"Prepare Chinese dicine?"
Hearing this, the staff’s tone paused, and said: "Yes, we do. Do you have a prescription? Without a prescription, we can’t just mix up dicine."
There is indeed such regulation.
This is also to prevent pharmacies from randomly giving dicine for profit, leading to improper treatnt despite buying the dicine, ultimately worsening health due to taking wrong dication.
This kind of thing has indeed happened.
As there’s a saying online, behind every bizarre regulation, there are so bizarre stories, or else such regulations wouldn’t exist.
However, there are counterasures to policies.
Not randomly dispensing dicine is right, and requiring prescriptions is correct, big pharmacies often have a licensed physician on staff who can provide prescriptions as needed.
"Brought one, but it’s handwritten." Lu Xuan took out the prescription and handed it to the staff.
The staff took a look, frowned: "This won’t work, it needs to be a doctor-written prescription, or one of those electronic printed slips from a hospital."
Having said that, cautiously glanced at Lu Xuan.
The more successful the pharmacy, the more cautious they are about such matters, fearing that Lu Xuan might be a spy from another pharmacy. Once they dispense according to this prescription, a report afterward would definitely check out.
This point cannot be overlooked.
Lu Xuan also knew many pharmacies fear being reported, so so money isn’t earned if it risks penalties. Otherwise, being penalized is not a trivial matter, potentially costing tens of thousands, if not resulting in suspended operations for rectification.
So, under the staff’s wary gaze, he pulled out his practicing physician certificate.
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