(4 minute read)
My last post with the picture of the cute puppy at the top was popular. It had the greatest number of hits in the first hour of posting than any other post this year. I’m going with a picture of a cute kitten this time. I know, you already noticed. Onwards and upwards. This post is going to be about the cost of pharmaceuticals and dying. (Try spelling pharmaceuticals without spell check. Let’s here it [sic] for spell check!)
But first a personal story
Back in May of 2020 I almost died from a massive internal bleed caused by an undetected cancer in my small intestine. It had been there a couple of years, but I was diagnosed as having something else. It happens.
Anyway, after the cancer was removed the oncologist wanted me taking a pill that targeted the specific cancer that I have and keeps it in remission. Guess how much a one-month supply costs without insurance. Go on, guess. I’ll give you a few seconds to think. Did you guess $3,000 a month?[1] You’d be right. There’s no way that we could afford that. Fortunately, I had insurance. With insurance the cost was only $2,000 a month. (Sarcasm) Still out of reach.
Luckily, I happen to be a partially disabled veteran and can get the pills that I need through the Veterans Administration (VA) AND the VA covers my cancer-related medical expenses. My cost for the pills through the VA is $8 per month. My guess is though that the VA pays the full freight of the pills. That’s why giving Medicare and the VA the ability to negotiate for drug prices is important. Republicans oppose that.[2]
(BTW the VA picking up my cancer expenses from a non-VA doctor in the private sector is thanks to President Obama in 2014, NOT Trump, though he likes to take credit for doing it.[3])
Being considered disabled is really starting to pay off. I am fortunate to be in a position where my expenses are being covered. Too many aren’t. In addition to the expense of pills there are regular visits to the oncologist, blood tests, CT scans, MRIs etc. all on a regular basis.
I’m not quite done with this story yet. When I first got the name of the medication, I started researching the pill online. Veterinarian supply places kept popping up. I called up the vet that we use for our critters and asked him how much the cancer pill would cost for our dog. Same pill. Same dosage but it may have been liver flavored. I hate liver. Anyway, the cost was approximately $240 for a 3-month supply. The vet can’t write prescriptions for humans. From what I could find it costs a couple hundred dollars to manufacture a year’s supply.
Outraged yet?
Dying to live.
In 2021 there were 434,540 bankruptcies.[4] In 2020 there were 612,561. In 2017 through 2019 there were over three quarter of a million each year.
Do you know what the leading cause of bankruptcy is in the United States? Did you guess medical expenses?[5] If you did you’d be right. Sixty-two percent of bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. Of that percentage 78% had some form of medical insurance.
People that don’t have health insurance don’t go to the doctor unless they’re desperate. Approximately 80,000 people year die prematurely from treatable illness.[6] People of color are two times more likely to die from “mortality amenable to health care” than white people.[7] So yes systemic racism also affects healthcare. Insert a favorite racist Trump Republican rebuttal here.
The top ten CEOs in the health care industry knock down from 18 to 25 million dollars a year.[8] That’s not an average. The average hospital CEO makes around a couple of hundred grand a year. In the last decade healthcare CEO pay has improved 100% while the average healthcare worker is around 8%.[9] The big money is in pharmaceuticals. The top CEO there made a cool 38 million.[10] Fourteen billionaires made their money in healthcare.[11] The COVID pandemic gave us 9 new billionaires.[12] Be still my beating heart!
Year after year Republicans have opposed and continue to oppose improving health care for those that aren’t rich.
That’s their healthcare plan.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2018/09/12/the-curious-case-of-gleevec-pricing/?sh=26cf9b7754a3
[2] https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3678314-senate-republican-bill-would-repeal-dem-drug-pricing-law/
[3] https://www.factcheck.org/2018/03/trump-veterans-choice-program/
[4] https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2021/11/08/bankruptcy-filings-continue-fall-sharply
[6] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2019/americans-die-prematurely-treatable-causes
[7] https://2020scorecard.commonwealthfund.org/deaths/
[8] https://ceoworld.biz/2021/10/19/top-10-highly-paid-ceos-in-healthcare-in-the-us/
[9] https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20220208.925255
[10] https://graphics.wsj.com/table/CEOPAY_slice_Pharma_0606
[11] https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/88793
[12] https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/business/covid-vaccine-billionaires/index.html
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