You might think with all of these iPhones and iPads and Snuggies and The Clapper there would be complete perfection when it comes to the stuff that we actually need in the first place—you know, things like water and food and medicine. It turns out that it’s not the case at all. This year, the United States is facing a drug shortage so drastic that at least 15 people have died from not receiving their medication.

There is a shortage of at least 213 drugs this year, piggypacking on last year’s shortage of 211. And according to those who track the shortages in a university setting, the end isn’t even in sight. The trend seems to keep growing annually, leaving us all to wonder whether or not it will someday hit us and our meds. These shortages are becoming so commonplace that they are considered to be normal.

One of the most disturbing trends about the shortages, however, is how they are being rationed. The story is that those who need the medicines most are being given first dibs, but one has to wonder how money and power are playing into this, too. And some life-saving meds are being doled out to preemies rather than older children because they absolutely cannot survive without them, while older children may or may not, which is a really slippery slope to use to justify these shortages.

Some really important drugs are included in these shortages—like blood pressure medicine used to treat patients with extremely high blood pressure, or cancer chemotherapy treatments. Hell, even some electrolyte solutions are in short supply—how the hell do we have Gatorade, then, I have to ask!

According to the FDA, most shortages are simply because something goes wrong in the manufacturing process and the medicines cannot be used due to their lack of safety or their contamination. Hire some product control and safety people, I say, and give folks jobs while you make more meds for those who need it! Perhaps the government needs to turn its eyes there instead of stupid election or reelection campaigns, what goes inside a person’s bedroom or a woman’s body, and whether or not god should be in politics. A task force is developing at Mass General to look at solutions and causes, but this is a national issue that needs to be more closely examined and solved soon.