Bankrupted......

I would assume you have to move to Sweden and immigrate there to enjoy the benefit. It is not like you could just drop by each month as a tourist for the free rx refill.

JNF said...
Everton,

Thanks for the interesting information. Here in the US the mainstream press and media mostly report that health care is free in Canada and never point out the significant expense gaps like Zytiga that are experienced. Can you get relief directly from the drug company?

Your initial treatment results based on PSA have been great. Now to tackle the PSADT. How are you doing overall? Have the mets subsided? Have you considered Provenge?

JNF

Our health care is pretty decent, I have had operations, chemo and never been out of pocket. The prescription drugs are not covered though.

My M.O is actually going to the drug company for direct relief. We are definitely middle class. My last scans show no mets. There has been talk about stopping Lupron and trying Firmagon as an option. We have not discussed Provenge as of yet, but I will bring it up when I see him again shortly. I am still extremely optimistic about controlling this monster!

Sort of related to the discussion, this is real interesting, NYU-Langone is offering full scholarships without regard to need or merit to all current and future students of their Med School

www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180816/HEALTH_CARE/180819934/nyu-medical-school-to-offer-free-tuition-to-all-students

“
Medical school officials said the scholarships would open up the school to a wider pool of applicants and reduce the incentive for debt-laden students to enter higher-paying specialties, such as neurology, orthopedics and cardiology.

With a lower debt burden, the school is hopeful more students will pursue lower-paying fields, such as primary care, pediatrics and OB/GYN.”

Full disclosure, the linked article was written by my nephew, who covers Healthcare for Crains NY Business.
But I actually found it when it was tweeted out by one of my Doctors who I follow on Twitter.

Paxton, I'm familiar with the principles of project management--I use them in my regular life as well. It was my recollection of how they were put in the particular article I remember from 20+ years ago that made a deep impression on me.

As far as rationing goes, we do have rationing in the US--based on geography and ability to pay. When I was seeking PC treatment, I lived in rural mid-america-in what is sometimes derisively called "flyover country". Even if I had wanted to explore something like proton, I would have had to travel hundreds of miles to get it. And, for many, many people, having the time and money available TO 'go any distance, pay any cost' to get state of the art treatment just isn't possible.

I was fortunate to be able to get world-class treatment a 2 hour drive away from home--but that 2 hour drive also drove the type of treatment decision: for example, a 40 treatment EBRT cycle would have required 40 sick days and either hundreds of miles of driving or 6 weeks in a hotel.

This next comment may verge into the political a bit--but every time I hear someone pronounce that 'consumers should get more aware of the real costs' as if getting medical care is like buying a car, I want to scream. First, has anyone ever gotten a straight answer when asking a medical person what a procedure is going to cost? (Maybe a dentist will if you ask what a root canal and crown will cost, but beyond that?) Second, when you're dealing with a major health issue for yourself or your child--maybe especially your child--people don't think in terms of money. They think in terms of getting treatment and getting better. If 'cost education' was really something we should be doing in this forum--wouldn't we automatically include the cost factor in every bit of information we share here when someone asks, for example, about the advantages of Proton over IMRT or surgery? (or the relative cost of Provenge vs traditional therapies?) Sure, we're glad when someone gets approved for Provenge--and even happier when we find out that it proves to be the miracle cure. But if COST is to be the driver of medical decisions for everyone (and not just for THEM, but for US too)--then we should applaud the insurers when they turn someone down, shouldn't we?

*climbs off soapbox*

Halbert/Normal:

You can applaud the insurance companies all you want.
But I won't.
Quite the opposite when supposedly medical experts make these insurance decisions... and it turns out they are not even experts regarding the person's illness...and they get paid based on how much $$$ they can save the insurance companies (as per a story I recall seeing on Sixty Minutes or some other such news show).

Just read the article I posted.
You had about 5-6 experts -- many from Harvard Medical School -- fighting these non-experts (one of whom lost his medical license for awhile) at UHC. Disgusting!

Mel

Halbert:

When costs become price gouging, then something should be done.

Mel

The challenge of fixing it is summed up here: Can we even agree on what needs to be fixed? We want costs to be contained--but how? We want our doctors, not some (insert your choice) government or insurance company drone to determine what is best for us. We don't want "rationing" or "death panels" to be involved--but how else do you, on a large scale, put limits on treatments that may not actually be of benefit to the patient?

All serious questions that defy easy solutions.

142 - I had a doc who would get the drug companies to send him as many "sample" and "starter" packs for things as he could talk them into. He gave them his patients who were having finical problems. Once, when I was unemployed for about six months, he supplied my BP meds for the whole time.

142, thanks for the heads up. Fortunately I will have no problem obtaining Zytiga, legally.🙂 The price for it, I suspect, is quite arbitrarily set and doesn’t follow the manufacturing cost+reasonable profit model of most products.

I love that your doctor is taking a risk to help patients in need. Like Hud said, I’ve always thought the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. Sometimes I lean one way and sometimes I lean the other.