As I face loss of my job, and loss of my insurance, I have to reconsider whether or not I can afford my much-needed Remicade treatments. On top of everything else, I’ve already paid in $2500 of my $5000 annual out-of-pocket expenses for this year, but if I have to change to a different plan (even if it’s with the same insurance company), I have to start back at 0! Why did Obamacare never take into account those who need to change plans in the middle of the year? Is it fair for me to have to pay $7,500 this year, while everyone else on a similar plan pays $5,000? Ugh!
“Hi, this is your pharmacist. I just want to let you know that the co-pay for that prescription you dropped off is $400. Do you still want the prescription filled?”
[Sure, why not. I just won’t eat for the next month or so.]
***
That was an actual call from my pharmacist after my health insurance company revised its drug formulary. Asacol HD, which I need for my ulcerative colitis, jumped from a $50 a month co-pay to the $400 a month co-pay noted above. My insurance prescription plan is three tiers – $15 for the first tier, $50 for the second tier, and 50% of the manufacturer’s price for the third tier. The third tier is generally reserved for experimental and/or non-generic drugs.
There is no generic equivalent for Asacol HD, and it used to be that if there was no generic equivalent, a drug was dropped into…
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Cordelia's Mom, Still 
wow!
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yep. The poor get poorer.
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And the elites do not care. Elected officials have their own healthcare plan..even Congressional aides get in on that…a perk like being able to vote raises for yourself.
(comment on other post.)
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That’s awful. As a Canadian there’s really not much I can say to help, except offer you a hug. I hope you’re able to work things out, CM.
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I’ll take that hug, Linda. Hugs help.
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That’s crazy and even crazier that the richest nation on earth allows this to happen to its own citizens.
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I believe it’s because the richest people in the nation wish to keep on being the richest people in the nation and never mind us smaller people. There’s no reason an IV infusion should cost a total of $4,000, with a co-pay of over $800.
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I couldn’t agree more. I’m Canadian and lucky enough to have insurance for meds as well. This wouldn’t hapoen here yet I’ve had online arguments with Americans who will say their ststem is better, even though it literally bankrupts a latge proportion of their population. It’s madness to me.
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Our system is broken. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
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I had forgotten about your meds! Talk to your doctor. Often we keep samples or have drug programs for uninsured that can bridge you.
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That will be my next step, Victo. I have some savings that I can use to pay for the next couple of infusions, but after that my GI doctor is going to have to find something else for me. It’s going to be interesting – even with the Remicade, I’ve been having some serious flares the last couple of weeks. Maybe being unemployed and being home would reduce the stress enough that the flares would ease – or maybe it will make them worse. It’s a crap shoot (pardon the pun).
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I am sending you love. Talk to your specialists right now before money runs out.
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Yes, doctor. 🙂
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I had no idea that this could happen mid year. So sorry for you, CM. Hope you take the Doc’s advice and get some help from your Dr. I wish we had a better system. My husband lost his job before being eligible for Medicare…we went with an Obamacare plan. It was not inexpensive, and it doesn’t cover so many things, but it was better than nothing, I guess. Wishing you a good solution.
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The worst of it is, Van, that we’ve worked all our lives, paid all our bills, helped others when we could. Only to be kicked in the butt in our twilight years. There’s something seriously wrong with that picture.
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There surely is, CM.
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And here I am complaining about prescription charges increasing from $3.00 to $5.00 over the last year! That’s all I pay for any prescription, no matter what its real cost. No insurers, no paperwork at all (unless you consider the carrying of the script from doctor’s office to pharmacy to be paperwork). Let’s face it, the worse you are health wise, the less able you are to cope with the stresses of dealing with organisations that want to maximise their profits.
What you pay in health insurance premiums is not far short of what my personal annual income is (before taxes). A few years ago, I was on a medication that cost a little over $100.00 per tablet, and I was consuming up to 10 per week. A prescription covered 100 tablets plus two repeats: $100 * 100 * 3 = $30,000.00 for eight months worth of medication, which cost me $5.00.
Admittedly, from this distance we probably get to hear only the worst aspects of Obamacare, but it doesn’t seem to have made healthcare any more affordable for many Americans. I think most people here in Aotearoa New Zealand, would call Obamacare a Clayton’s affordable healthcare system – the affordable healthcare system to have when you’re not having an affordable healthcare system.
For non-Kiwis: Claytons was a drink that was promoted as a non-alcoholic substitute for whisky in the 1980s, and its advertisements used the phrase “the drink to have when not having a drink”. It was a commercial failure (surely that could have been foreseen?), but the word Clayton lives on as the term given to anything that is a poor imitation or substitute for the real thing.
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I think I’d like to move to New Zealand. It might solve my medication and neighbor problems both at the same time. The only problem is that I get seasick and hubby won’t fly, so I’m not sure exactly how we’d get there.
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Holy crap!!
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I heard prices are going up exponentially on all drugs – sounds like price gouging and this is wrong – so wrong!
And the amount you already laid should carry over – argh – This healthcare system is really bad in the USA.
I heard that Obama recently published his first scholarly article – (on terrierman blogspot) and I thought about writing a scholarly response to it – because I have some things to say – but i don’t have the three weeks to invest in writing the paper – but my goodness – my personal opinion is that Obama-care has many many many flaws!
Anyhow – I know it is hard to mix holistic treatments with allopathic care – but there are intestinal cleanses folks do that help clean up the bioterrain!
So often flukes and microbes are at the root cause of these ailments and so maybe tou can think about checking into cleases and rebuilding the body terrain – I know it is not for everyone – but in various online forums I have heard many testimonies – and also healed from something myself – and I thanks herbs and magnesium chloride –
And allopathic care only wanted to give me steroids and they manage symptoms! But alternative options helped me get to root cause.
Anyhow – sorry to ramble – but I was meaning to email and decided to write it here.
And especially in the Great Lakes area – there is a specific fluke that causes intestinal havoc for some folks –
We all have parasites – but when the load gets too heavy (a heavy burden) it leaves behind mycotoxins and zaps nutrient said – further – many people with chronic illness have candidiasis – which clogs the mucosa lining in the small intestine (where 80% of immunity stems from) and this candidia also leaves bad stuff behind while it causes malabsorption and the hyphae attach to the intestines and then leads to leaky gut –
All that to say that cleansing and rebuilding the immune system is never too late –
We go slow – use different cleanses – and prepare for hard days (herxheimer reaction phases) but it has wonderful outcomes.
If you are interested in learning a little more –
One of my mentors with this kind of body healing is Diana from “myradiary.com”
I LOVE her research and agree with her –
Anyhow – I know it is not for everyone – but it sure is nice to not be dependent on prescription drugs and the price gouging – i hope America fixes this horrible robbing of patients -!
—-
Sending you hugs my friend
Xxoo
😎❤️🌸🌸🌸
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