When Does 'Harmless' Cross a Line?

snickerscharlie

singingflutelady wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

I'm in Canada, so drug costs aren't covered until age 65. That's why I'm grateful to have coverage through my husband's company. Major expenses like surgery, hospital stays, rehab, lab tests, etc. *are* covered by the Provincial health plan, but not drugs, dental, chiropractic, vision care etc.

If you are low income, on social assistance or provincial disability (not cpp d) there are provincial drug plans. I'm on NS pharmacare and because of the number of prescriptions i get my co pay has been waved but it was $5 per prescription. I'm on CPP disability and get topped up by social assistance ( I get $750 a month in total) so without this insurance having an ostomy would be impossible.

That makes sense that those in financial need get drugs covered before age 65, too. I figured that was likely the case, but wasn't certain how it worked.

GottaBurnEmAll

snickerscharlie wrote: »

Alatariel75 wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

singingflutelady wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

singingflutelady wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

singingflutelady wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

earlnabby wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

JerSchmare wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

stevencloser wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

canadianlbs wrote: »

snickerscharlie wrote: »

Our treatments are so effective that even the North Carolina Medical Board is trying to suppress the truth."

i love it when self-reference and paranoia combine to produce this kind of thing.

in a really sick, i-shouldn't-be-slowing-down-to-rubberneck-this kind of way.

Yes, if these "IV treatment" methods actually work in treating some legitimate medical conditions, (and that's a big "if" in my view,) I don't understand why the medical community wouldn't be all over it.

Or is the contention that the regular medical stream is so prescription drug enamoured that they would deny their patients something that could potentially be life-saving in favour of alleged financial kickbacks from BigPharma?

That's the gist of every "they're hiding the cure for X from us!" conspiracy theory, yes.

How incredibly misguided.

It's a slippery slope. On one hand, there are "cures" for diseases. I know there are, but they won't look at it, consider it, or study it. On the other hand, I tend to want to stick to what's been proven by science to work effectively.

Conspiracies are easy to manufacture in your mind. I used to think cures for cancer existed. But, after learning about it and talking to not only doctors, but lab scientists that were searching for a cure, it's a complicated mess. And of all the hundreds and thousands of research scientists trying to solve this puzzle, it would be impossible to squash. Yes, big money is behind it and has no interest in curing it. However, most people that are trying to solve it has lost a loved one to it, and therefore, one of those voices would reach out from the pile, and speak up.

Yes, there are some diseases I think can be solved, but "they" don't want to because it's not profitable for anyone. But, not to the extent people think. At least, that's my theory.

I cannot and will not allow myself to believe that a cure for cancer in general or for a specific cancer in particular actually exists and is being willfully and deliberately suppressed to line some people's pockets. As you stated, I don't know of a single person who hasn't lost someone they loved to this disease - whatever form it took - who would be willing to be silent for long.

And wouldn't the manufacture of the 'cure' drug garner its discoverers a fortune anyway? That's what I don't understand.

Personally, I think money and politics get involved as far as what potential cures get researched and what ones don't. A rare disease that only affects a few thousand people will not get the funding that something like cancer that affects millions does. In that way, I think there are cures out there that scientists have an idea as to what may work but don't have the wherewithal to research. Do I think there is a big conspiracy out there working to keep cures from the general public? No way.

Yeah, that's what I think, as well.

And if you think about it, if there *was* a cure for cancer in general - say a vaccine that could be administered to prevent people from getting it in the first place, for example - wouldn't everyone who could possibly access it opt to get it? That, on a world population scale, in and of itself, would be a *huge* profit center, would it not?

And then if you consider that if people were no longer dying of cancer, wouldn't that leave a larger, um, customer base (for lack of a better term) to utilize other drugs or treatments for other diseases they might develop instead, if only because they're not already dead from cancer? I mean you can't treat dead people.

People talk about how cures would cut their profit but they could charge whatever they want for it. Just look at the price of the Hep C cure. It's very very expensive. Also think of the fame and fortune they'd get if they found a cure. A thing that bothers me is that people act like cancer is one disease. Nope cancer is hundreds of different diseases and different causes. There will never be one thing that cures them all. There are some forms that have 90+% survival rate and some with basically 0%.

You're absolutely spot on that cancer has many different causes. I was using it in the general, collective term for simplicity here. I doubt that a one-shot-cures-all type of deal would be possible, but only time with tell. Perhaps possible as a preventative across-the-board, but as a cure for all types once established? Not likely.

Don't know what the cost of the Hep C cure is, but I do recall when the HPV vaccine first came out and I paid for the shots for my daughter. I wondered how lower income families could afford to get them, or if there was some geared-to-income program that would provide it to them at no cost. I certainly hope so.

I wasn't referring to you about the cancer thing just how there are so many people who think big pharma is hiding the cure (singular).

The hep C drug costs at least 100k if I recall correctly

Yikes!

I was a little off. The top 4 most expensive prescription drugs in the USA are all hep c drugs
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/10/americas-10-most-expensive-prescription-drugs.html
2017

30 days of:

#1 harvoni is 87 800
#2 Sovaldi 73 800
#3 Epclusa 73 300
#4 Zepatier 52 600
#6 Daklinza 49 400
#10Viekira Pak 34,600 though this one needs to be taken at least twice as long as the others

Even though it's not $100K, that's still something only the truly wealthy could afford right now.

I recently found out that the medication I'm on twice daily for the foreseeable future if $65,000 a year in the USA...

Ouch! Something like that would sink my financial ship in under a month.

I'm glad to currently have a company health plan that includes prescription drugs with a small co-pay. Without it, my meds would run me about $400 a month. In a few years when I reach 65, the government health plan for seniors kicks in and will cover all drug costs.

I'm grateful to live in a country that takes care of its people - especially seniors - like that.

I'm very lucky. My biologic would run us about $5000 a month without insurance. We don't even have a copay for it with our current carrier. I'm afraid what will happen when my husband gets too old to work, though. Medicaid isn't going to cover near as much.

earlnabby

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

I'm very lucky. My biologic would run us about $5000 a month without insurance. We don't even have a copay for it with our current carrier. I'm afraid what will happen when my husband gets too old to work, though. Medicaid isn't going to cover near as much.

I am on Medicare and have a supplement. All of my regular meds are generic except one so I have copays of $0. The one that is not generic is a tier 3 so I pay $125 for a 3 month supply with a one time extra payment of $250 for the first refill in a calendar year. It is going generic in 2019, thank goodness. One-time scripts (like antibiotics) have a co-pay of something like $5 because I get them from a retail pharmacy instead of the mail order used by my insurance.

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