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There is a medication that I've been told might stop me from going through hell and back on an almost daily basis, hell that has robbed me of my career. The med didn't work for me six years ago when it cost me $20/mo, but I agreed to give it another go.
$2200/mo with my current insurance, $1000/mo with coupon. That's for 8 doses of a medication that has been around since the end of WWII. Combined with $1000/mo in other medical care... At least I've just paid off expenses accrued due to health problems in the 1990's. There's that.
Healthcare in the US is hell to those on both sides of the stethoscope.
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I just cannot imagine the worry, heartache and dilemmas you lot have to go through to get your health sorted.
Paul
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voodoopenguin wrote:
I just cannot imagine the worry, heartache and dilemmas you lot have to go through to get your health sorted.
Paul
I'm reminded of an episode of "The New Statesman," where ultra-conservative Alan B'Stard mourns for the "good old days" before the UK's National Health Service:
"You see, in the good old days, you were poor, you got ill, and you died. And yet these days people seem to think they've got some sort of God-given right to be cured. And what is the result of this sloppy socialist thinking? More poor people. In contrast, my policies would eradicate poor people, thereby eliminating poverty. And they say that we Conservatives have no heart."
In the US, "poor people" would mean the bottom 98% of the population.
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The HIV meds I was on were 50 bucks a pill. Every day.
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If $2K is the retail price, then the insurer is getting stiffed for even more, which helps explain why healthcare in America costs so much. We all subsidize Big Pharma.
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My mom uses an inhaler that is not in her formulary. The brand name is $1200/month - the generic is $950. GoodRx drops it to $100, except that is for three inhalers rather than one.
She had a ER visit that was $15000 before insurance reduced it to $41.40.
The medical system in the US needs to be fixed, something that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
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wave rider wrote:
[quote=JoeH]
Dealing with that run up in drug prices getting insulin for my cat. Retail price is $300+ a vial, can get a coupon that takes off about $15. Coupons are available to get it for just over $200 if the prescription was for a human. Fortunately the vial lasts for about 6 months at the dose needed for my cat. No usable coupon for the boxes of insulin syringes though.
Looked up the estimated cost of producing that vial, and past prices. It used to retail for about $100, and cost about $20-25 to make.
My cats are too old to get the insurance, but if a new kitten shows up in my life, I will get it. It has paid off for a friend that keeps rescuing cats.
Mine is 13, diagnosed with diabetes back in early June. Will have to consider pet health insurance when/if I get a new cat in the future.
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For a couple years, 2018 and 2019, I took Jakafi at $12,680 a month. Express Scripts paid it all.
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We're kind of in an in-between era where we are learning a lot about specific diseases and we have ways of (rapidly) screening hundreds of thousands of compounds in silico (that's biology jargon for using computer programs to look for molecules that fit with each other) and out of that, screening for workable drugs -- first in cultured cells, then with animal testing, and finally in human tests. The companies that grab the patents don't have a lot of shame when it comes to pricing.
Forty years from now, things will be different and the overall consumer costs for drugs will probably be less.
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wave rider wrote:
I am once again very pleased that I have good insurance, but what are people with less advantageous insurance or none to do?
I sure hope we can fix this system…
MediCal if they're indigent - and they live in Cali. It's more of a problem for those in the middle, those who don't have or can't afford insurance but still make too much to qualify for assistance. While some states are more progressive in covering that group, many still aren't. And that group truly suffers the consequences.
And yes, that needs to get fixed across the land. The only thing keeping the right thing from happening is a bunch of bureaucrats, insurance and health care executives, and big Pharma wonks who continue making millions of dollars a year off the current system of haves and have nots.
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