Many of you who regularly fill prescriptions are taking a generic drug that is supposed to be interchangeable with the name-brand drug. Generics can save you a lot of money but are they as safe as you believe? In America, we are accustomed to taking a pill for whatever ails us. Regardless of whether this is good for us is a different conversation altogether. For pain, chiropractic offers better solutions than pain pills. For many other health conditions, people depend on generics as less expensive substitutes for name-brand antibiotics, blood pressure pills and even heart medications. True, name-brand pills in the USA are outrageously priced compared to other countries, but if you know where to look, you can get a coupon to reduce your out-of-pocket cost. Some drug companies have gone so far as to buy companies who manufacture the generics and they have been slowly increasing consumer prices of these medications to increase their corporate bottom lines. By their nature, pharmaceuticals require a prescription because they are riskier than over-the-counter medications and require the oversight of a physician. In some cases, insurers are not covering name-branded drugs or making the copayments so high, it forces people to use a generic. Many of us are taking generics right now without knowing it. Are generic drugs safe or fully interchangeable with brand-name medications? Check out this NY Times article Our Drug Supply Is Sick. How Can We Fix It? By Farah Stockman Sept. 18, 2021 The American health care system is built on the idea that a pill is a pill. Generic drugs are considered equal to and interchangeable with one another — and also with the name brand. This gospel has existed since 1984, when a law known as Hatch-Waxman was passed, allowing companies to make drugs that had gone off patent without having to replicate the same expensive clinical trials. For the most part, all they had to do was prove that the generic was manufactured using good practices and worked in the body in a similar way, within an acceptable range. Hatch-Waxman has been a stunning success. Americans have grown increasingly comfortable with generic medications, which now represent 90 percent of the prescriptions that are filled in this country. Their widespread use has translated into trillions of dollars in savings. Politicians and experts agree that any hope we have for affordable, universal health care rests on generic drugs. Read more