how much do you think that it costs for one treatment of the chemo drug, doxil? yup...that little bottle pictured above.
(music playing in background while contestants write their answers down)
so...whaddya think?
BEEEEEEP...YOURE WRONG!
granted; i have no idea what answer you wrote down. but im pretty sure that you still got it wrong.
heres the thing. im one of those totally lame people who pays a bill without checking out the total. i know....lame. dont tell my husband. or my dad, for that matter; cuz he sure didnt raise me to do things like that. (yes dad...i still remember the lobster i ordered at "market price" at gladstones in malibu. and yes....now i know to always ask what the "market price" is before i order it!)
so, you can imagine my surprise when my husband opened up our insurance bill, and informed me that blue cross was billed $40,000 for ONE treatment of doxil. (ive had 5 so far). and no...i didnt make a mistake and add to many zeros. jeez frickin louise! wtf? its an hour infusion of a liquid. and of course my life is worth waaaaay more than $40,000. BUT. it makes you wonder, huh?! what the fuck can actually be in there that would justify a $40,000 price tag? and then my mind wanders to all of the other things id rather spend 40 grand on.
other observations...
1- seriously....what is actually in that medicine? liquid gold? i cant imagine ANYTHING that could be in there that would actually cost that amount of money. i understand the concept of "mark up." (neiman marcus? fred segal? yeah...i get it.) there needs to be some sort of profit. but c'mon!
2- umm....could this be one of the reasons why our health system is just so fucked up? (intentional rhetorical question)
3- is this just one of the reasons why so many people cant afford health care?
4- am i reeeeeally supposed to believe the FDA and the drug companies have our best interest in mind?
5- for this price, does it clean your house? do your dishes? include some sort of "happy ending?"
6- for $40,000, shouldnt it just cure the damn cancer!? and oh yeah....world peace!?
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6 comments:
mmmmm Gladstones in Malibu!
Dude, you're worth a lot of $$$. There's liquid gold in your veins!! You're fancy!
But what we really want to know is-- how much was the lobster?
i would pay just about anything to get you healthy,but not so much for a lobster!
Ugh. My Doxil was about 10,000 each treatment, so I wonder why yours is so high? (I had mine in the spring/summer of 2008).
I did just get my first bill for single agent Avastin - $53,000.00 billed to BC/BS for ONE treatment!!! :(
Good luck!
holy shit.
holy, holy, holy shit.
yeah, what happens to people with no insurance?
yikes
...a partial answer...
1. Cost of FDA and Clinical trials- $802 million per new drug approved. It takes an average of 8.5 years to get approved and since most of the researchers make 6 figures, you can see where that adds up quickly.
2. Marketing costs- those hot looking pharma reps don't come cheap either.
3. Hospital "mark-ups"- anything that is administered in a hospital has a higher profit margin than private clinics (bandages cost $15).
4. Detroit- For some unexplained reason, Blue Cross sill pay out more for procedures in Michigan than in other states (but they also charge the insured more).
5. Number of patients- since there are only 21,500 new cases of Ovarian cancer each year, there is a limited market which means a higher cost per dose.
If you shop around (for any drug or treatment) you can usually find a wide range of prices.
Love ya!!!
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