re: F cancer, F insurance companies, and F big pharma!!!

She has. I don’t live in Arkansas so contacting my congressman and local news would do nothing for her. But she has done that, with the exception of going to the local news I believe. Even gone as far as to contact the governors office.

Stay away from documentaries. They tend to show only what supports the people making it agenda. I’m sure there is some good info in it but it is also probably coated with bullshite that can easily be refuted with a little research.

Right my Mum and step dad live in Louisiana-step Dad has a congenital heart issue-2K in health insurance premiums a month and when he goes for surgery still ends up costing him 10-15k. In Canada my wife’s father has an autoimmune disease and is on tons of different drugs and hospital visits and it costs him nothing. Not one penny. I don’t know the answer but it makes me angry.

Big Pharma in collusion with Big Government is a criminal racket.

They can’t take all the blame. Pharmacy Benefit Managers like express scripts and CVS Caremark have been lining their pockets for decades. These managers negotiate discounts with the pharm companies and then pocket those discounts and patients in many cases pay full price of meds. In Louisiana until this year, it is against the law for a pharmacist to tell you that the medicine would be cheaper if you did not use your insurance.

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Shoemaker almost paid a lot more for one drug; it cost $613 with her insurance. But instead of using that insurance, Shoemaker logged on to one of those cost-saving prescription apps - in this case, GoodRx - and paid just $272 for the medication.

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And last year she could have saved even more: She used her insurance for a $277 cream, but only later found out she could have paid just $11.72 via an app.

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Lee Zurik Report

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But WHY is it 15k?

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Pharmaceutical companies will charge what the market will bear for a drug. If only a small amount of people who require the drug can afford it, they’ll charge whatever gets them their money back the quickest. Although there is really no transparency into what the true costs of R&D are, so who knows.

Health insurance companies won’t add a recently FDA-approved drug to their drug formulary until there is sufficient evidence that it is cost effective and safe, which unfortunately takes time. This obviously is bad news for anyone who requires the drug once it is approved. The FDA has promised that it is trying to get experimental drugs and therapies approved quicker, but the insurance companies will still be timid to cover these things.

There are too many players involved with drug pricing, and the reason for high prices is often hard to determine, but the pharmaceutical company sets the list price before anything else is negotiated. $15,000 is outrageous, and the sad part is that’s actually a lot lower than some other recent initial list prices for drugs lately.

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15,000 a month

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Coincidentally what some drug sales reps make.

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In Canada my wife’s father has an autoimmune disease and is on tons of different drugs and hospital visits and it costs him nothing. Not one penny. I don’t know the answer but it makes me angry.

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Yes it does. You pay for it your entire life through taxes instead of only when you need it. And the reason our Healthcare is the highest per capita is because 60% of the country is morbidly obese.

What happened to the OP's aunt is terrible, but there isn't some conspiracy. This pill will keep her alive for a long time, do you think that wasnt extremely expensive to figure out?

Has she checked into obtaining Medicaid coverage? Is she of Medicare age? Is she married? There could be some creative ways to try to get her back onto some sort of plan that could cover cost depending on what her AGI is.

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Steve Jobs

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Cancer sucks, but his arrogance and refusal to undergo recommended protocol when first diagnosed hastened his demise.