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It's insanity to expect the public to donate to everyone they know who is being destroyed by for-profit Western medicine, and the greedy insurance providers. Insanity.
Donate your money to politicians that support universal health coverage, a system that provides better outcomes at lower cost in EVERY OTHER ADVANCED NATION ON THE PLANET. And save me your stories about rich Canadians who come here for their luxury surgeries. I'm sick of the Fox Noise BS that props up our (intentionally) broken system.
I hope Brian’s treatment is successful first and foremost. Hopefully the moto community can help the money part become a non-issue. This is really terrible news
This isn't the proper place for me to go into details.
Also noted that Jason Anderson donated 2.5k
Wow, just wow
TM
And here's an ins story for you:
After he was diagnosed, Humana (may they burn in hell) pulled his medical files from his local primary doc. At some point, the doc prescribed him xanax because "Stress related to work".
They went back to his ins application and it asked "Have you ever sought psychiatric treatment?" and he put "NO" (because who the f considers a low dose xanax prescription as psychiatric treatment?"
Yeah, so they wrote him a letter and said "We're retro-actively cancelling your policy, bye" meaning that the first 4 months of treatment payments were all denied, and he got a letter saying he owed over $250k immediately.
Good times, let me tell you - his final med bills totaled over $2m and of course his widow told them to go pound sand.
Good luck to Brian - it's definitely a curable disease - my brother was just very unlucky.
Prayers to all.
That really seems like something your family can fight?
Pit Row
Was 10y ago now and it's all settled, but yes, it was brutal.
********
Then on the flip side of humanity.... I see Joey Savatgy is the 4th highest donor to date.
That really says something right there.
Immuno oncology monoclonal antibodies like keytruda are all under patent and cost a massive amount to produce vs small molecule oral pills. Plus, MABs need to be dosed via IV infusion at the hospital... any time you set foot in a hospital, it's a massive expense.
People should be aware, chemical exposure in the workplace can lead to serious health issues including cancer.
Known him since he was on a 60, used to live close by, before his parents packed up and started chasing his dream. Been a long road, I hope he can secure a good ride for ‘23.
I know someone who is saving hundreds a month on a prescription. I hadn’t done any research on it, but figured it was worth mentioning
Sorry to hear that about your brother. I had a similar experience. Got DXed with something nasty. Insurance wanted to go over all application paperwork to cancel us if possible. Luckily we had everything in order. Then they did and paid for everything possible to get me any and all treatment. However, because of Obama Care we had to give up that policy.
TM
It is unacceptable that while Brian if fighting for his life, he also face financial ruin for his family w/o proper insurance coverage. I am guessing he is around 35-45 years old and he may not be around long enough to continue to be the bread winner for his family. This situation only happens in 3rd world countries and the US (here come the down votes for speaking the truth and criticizing the US).
ALL is not as common as other tumor types so there has been less focus from the pharma industry, and it is difficult to treat in older patients. Nevertheless survival has great improved for ALL in children less than 10 years of age, as well as less than 15 years of age with the advent of new treatments. For patients over 35 and particularly those over 60, survival has not improved much, unfortunately.
Chemo is much cheaper than targeted therapy or immunologics and I expect that is what Brian would receive after chemo. Drugs like Blincyto and Bosulif can cost well over $15-17k a month in the US. There are 2 things he can do if he cannot pay for the drug;
1. Apply to the pharma company that makes the drug to receive free or discounted drug. However, income limits may apply to qualify
2. Participate in clinical trials where he will receive the drug and treatment for free. There are a couple of triple combinations in development for ALL and this not a bad option considering the some of the component drugs of the combo have proven efficacy as mono-therapy in ALL. However there are many types of ALL depending on which mutations the patient has and other factors. Bryan’s specific cancer situation would need to fit the protocol for the clinical trial to be able to participate
And now to address the elephant in the room as it is a double tragedy that Brian has to fight such an aggressive cancer as well the finances to ensure his family is taken care of. It is not uncommon for patients w/o insurance to forgo treatment in order to avoid financial ruin for their surviving family. We need national health insurance in this country, but a certain political party has blocked this and they have successfully convinced much of their constituency of a number of untruths. This constituency are the ones about to down vote this post. I have worked over 30 years in the industry in a global position and it is my job to know the national health insurance systems in most of the major countries around the world. I have also lived overseas for 15 years in a country where I participated in a national health insurance program. Some countries have better systems than others.
I am not a fan of the national health insurance systems in the UK, Australia, Canada. These systems are pretty good for primary care but I would not want to be an oncology patient in any of these countries. The government’s ideology in these countries is to invest in therapies that benefit more patients.. e.g. primary care. They invest less in oncology and rare diseases and many of the latest oncology drugs are not available to patients because their system’s do not want to pay for them.
For serious life-threatening diseases, you are better off in the national health insurance programs of countries like Germany, Italy or Japan. The countries have limits on maximum out-of-pocket spend so there will never be an excessive financial burden caused by your illness. Most all of the latest cancer drugs are available in these systems.
It is actually quite easy for the US to set up a national insurance system as they can learn from other countries that have been doing it for decades. It would have to be adapted for the US, though. Free choice of physicians, competition, retention of for-profit institutions,(but with limits). Cost of the program could be limited by making it more of a catastrophic insurance type program with financial safety nets, and not something that pays for every little thing they way some systems in other countries do.
Those in opposition to such a program will cite high costs of running the program and higher taxes, but what they don’t want you to know is that the average american will be paying a lot less for the same quality of healthcare. They will just be paying it though taxes rather than writing a check, and at the end of the day will be saving a lot of money for the same quality of care.
Americans spend about double of what an average OECD country spends on healthcare and in some cases 3-4X as much. It is getting worse very quickly. Healthcare costs have run amuck in the US and there will be no cure for this unless we adopt national health insurance and join the rest of the developed countries in sensible healthcare coverage. No more living in fear of financial ruin for getting sick and a lot of money will go back into the average American’s pocket.
Healthcare spend as a % of GDP;
https://www.statista.com/statistics/236541/per-capita-health-expenditur…
https://www.finder.com/healthcare-costs-by-country
TM
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