Don't hate me but insurance companies aren't to blame.

I think I get upset with the drug companies more because they charge whatever they can get away with rather than enough to recoup their costs plus a reasonable profit. Drugs should cost the same for all wherever they are sold. There should not be this shell game where they justify astronomical costs by relying on insurance or giving out "coupons" or "rebates". I don't get excited so much about new drugs that are coming out because my first thought goes to how much it's going to cost and will anyone be able to afford it?

NoTimeForCancer said:

Donswife, none of us would

Donswife, none of us would hate you!  As B said, this is a supportive community, and sometimes I think people say things that they don't realize may a hurtful response to what someone's opinion may be. (I think there are some of us - I know I have - felt attacked for something we wrote, so I am asssuming I can't be the only one.)  For me, it is why I have posted less here and on another gyn board.  The written word can be interpreted very differently than if we said it verbally, and why it is a difficult form of communication.  Just my opinion. 

As for insurance - any form of insurance:  health, dental, car...they all make us crazy.  I was fortunate that I had a full time job and had a good insurance policy.  For those not so lucky?  It is chilling to me that some of you ladies and others had to fight so much.  There appears to be different levels of care and, having sisters with some of those insurance policies, worry if something happened to them.  I wouldn't hesitate to fight like heck for them and reach in to my pocket to help them.  

I hate cancer.  It seems like it is more prevalent than when I was a kid, maybe I was just very protected from it all, and all of them demand attention.  As Eldri posted on the comments from the doctor (dated Jan 2018) on how chilling of hands and feet may help prevent neuropathy - WHY are all doctors not aware of this??!! 

Just my opinion ladies.  

Nobody always has the right words to express what they want to say all of the time. It's another of the risks of being on this board for any length of time. Sometimes you're just going to put your foot in it. I've done it, too. It's quite upsetting when it happens, but for the most part this is a very understanding group and we get past it. No one should think they always have to walk on eggshells because sometimes blunt talk is just what is needed. It always makes me remember someone who gave me some blunt talk back when I was in treatment and I'm forever grateful to her for it and I really miss her words of wisdom. 

My happiest time was with a non-profit HMO. Unfortunately they went bankrupt. I also spent 10 years with a pharmaceutical company. If you only knew how they waste money. There’s a lot of fat there beginning with outrageous salaries. 

I worked for a large insurance company for almost 10 years. It wrote multiple lines including health. After over 100 years, it went bankrupt and what it came down to was the large reserve we had to maintain for medical malpractice. When we wrote the policies we based the premiums on current court interpretations of laws. As the years went on, those interpretations changed radically. Even though we got out of the medical malpractice business, we had to maintain and even increase those reserves until the last child born under the policy was 28 years old (21 years plus seven) as medical malpractice settlements increased exponentially. 

The same principle is involved in health insurance.  A premature baby can cost millions. My three chemos and surgery were almost $300,000. As far as drugs go,

"In the United States, it takes an average of 12 years for an experimental drug to travel from the laboratory to your medicine cabinet. That is, if it makes it. Only 5 in 5,000 drugs that enter preclinical testing progress to human testing. One of these 5 drugs that are tested in people is approved."  On top of this, the US produces about one-third of the world's drugs and develops an even higher percent.

This website offers an explanation of why drugs cost so much in the United States.https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/369727-us-drug-prices-higher-than-in-the-rest-of-the-world-heres-why

Yes, drug profits are high but malpractice claims are also high. As in any industry, there is waste. 

So, what do we do? Go to a single-payer plan? What people don't realize is that health care MUST be rationed in order for it to be financially viable. I have a friend (I met her on the ovarian board) who lives in Great Britain and her doctor thought Avastin could help her. It was denied because the government felt she was at the end of her life and the cost of Avastin was too high to give her. She started a GoFundMe page to buy the Avastin on the open market there which costs about $3800 per dose. Her doctor would give it to her under their government insurance so she didn't have to pay for that. She only raised enough for two treatments. "....so to find out there is a drug choice available to me but will not be available through the NHS as NICE consider the potential six plus months it could give me, not financially viable, was a shock."  They weren't willing to spend $3800 per infusion on her because THEY determined she wasn't worth it. 

Of course, when we or a loved one is dying we want to try everything humanly possible to keep them alive but, again, at what cost? Can we afford to keep a premature baby with multiple medical conditions alive at a cost of multi-millions? At what quality of life?  How much should be allocated to an 80 year old? A 90 year old? At what age do we cut off care?  When my grandma was 94 years old she decided she wanted to die. She was of sound mind but felt the quality of her life was going downhill fast and all her friends were gone. She developed a bladder infection that she refused to have treated. I had to fight tooth and nail to have her wishes respected. Our doctors and hospitals are set up to save lives at all costs - "ALL" being the operative word here.  

I don't know what the answer is and I'm glad we can discuss this subject here openly. 

Love,

Eldri

I just found this and it explains why the US drug prices are so high. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/30/12945756/prescription-drug-prices-explained