Americans priced out of prescription drugs hoping…
Critical care nurse Janet Kerrigan was surprised to uncover in 2011 that she had a number of myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, and she only had a 12 months or two to live.
A vital stem cell transplant in 2012 extended her life — but her non-public insurance coverage service caught her with 20% of the practically million-dollar tab. Then got here the pharmacy invoice.
She was put on Revlimid, a expensive prescription drug that prompts the immune system to combat cancer cells. Her co-pay was a whopping $11,000.
Critical care nurse Janet Kerrigan was identified with a number of myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, in 2011. Handout
“This is a drug that’s going to keep my myeloma at rest,” Kerrigan, 69, who lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C., told The Post. “It’s like a diabetic needs insulin. Myeloma patients need Revlimid, so I just went into action.”
What adopted was a dizzying cycle of asset liquidation, family-led fundraisers, aspect jobs and grant purposes — something she might do to keep the Revlimid flowing.
The preposterous price of prescription capsules seized the highlight last week when President Trump announced new efforts to decrease them. Pfizer agreed to cut back prescription drug prices for Medicaid, while a soon-to-launch “TrumpRx” website is slated to offer discounted meds for the uninsured and underinsured.
Kerrigan, who is now retired and on Medicare, believes this is the “beginning of the help that we need.”
“I don’t believe it’s just going to be Medicaid,” she said about Trump’s drug plan, which is still evolving. “I think you’re going to start seeing a trickle-down effect.”
Inside Trump’s new drug-pricing plan
Kerrigan famous that she is aware of myeloma sufferers who can get a three-month provide of their meds for $80 — in India.
Kerrigan, middle, has struggled to make ends meet to pay for her remedies and prescription drugs. Handout
Prescription drug costs are notoriously high in the US, with Americans shelling out practically 3 times as a lot as other high-income nations.
Trump has long been pursuing a “most-favored-nation” (MFN) drug pricing plan to align US prices with those of other rich international locations.
Since his Sept. 30 announcement, AstraZeneca launched AstraZeneca Direct to promote its prescribed drugs at discounted money costs. The asthma rescue inhaler Airsupra and the diabetes drug Farxiga are among the remedies on the online platform.
And beginning in January, French drugmaker Sanofi will develop its $35 month-to-month insulin program to all US sufferers with a legitimate prescription, regardless of their insurance coverage standing.
Trump promised financial savings of up to 85% with his new initiative, though critics have said it doesn’t go far enough for sufferers to really feel it in their pocketbooks.
How prescription drug prices add up
Aarolyn McCullough, 66, might use all the help she will get.
Aarolyn McCullough suffers from an autoimmune liver disease. She obtained a liver transplant in 2011. Handout
The retired US Postal Service employee swallows 16 capsules a day to keep herself alive after being identified with an autoimmune liver disease and receiving a liver transplant.
There’s drugs to suppress her immune system, to keep her bile ducts open, to decrease her high blood pressure, to improve her levels of cholesterol, to enhance her bone density.
Then there’s cream for her prolapsed bladder and Ozempic for her diabetes. The checklist goes on and on.
Though she has federal worker health insurance coverage, she estimates that she drops $600 every 90 days for her intensive drug arsenal. It means cutting back in other areas of her life, like journey, leisure and eating out.
“I have to make sure that my medication is No. 1, because without that, I can’t do anything else,” McCullough, of Oak Park, Mich., told The Post.
Looking for help in DC
Kerrigan and McCullough are half of Patients for Affordable substances, a national group devoted to decreasing prescription drug costs.
Kerrigan and other members of Patients for Affordable substances met with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in July. Handout
Kerrigan, along with other members of the group, met with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the summer season to plead for reduction.
“I said, ‘I’m going to tell you something embarrassing, but this is what I had to do. My mother gave me my grandmother’s silver, and I cashed it in to pay for my medical bills,’ ” recalled Kerrigan, who also tapped into her pension and 401(ok) retirement financial savings plan.
“And I got angry, and I said, ‘Nobody should have to go through this.’”
Kerrigan said Kennedy “really listened to us” and appeared “very, very empathetic” to the trigger, even expressing anger at the hoops group members have had to leap through to get their meds.
After the assembly, Kennedy said that decreasing prescription drug costs to match those of other nations is the “only humane thing and compassionate thing that we can do for Americans.”
Shaping a new future
Stressing about sky-high costs distracts from the nice that McCullough is doing.
She assists transplant sufferers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where she obtained her donor liver in 2011, and runs the nonprofit Aarolyn’s House of Hope. She envisions a space for organ recipients and their households that resembles the Ronald McDonald House.
McCullough estimates that she shells out $600 every 90 days for her prescription drug routine. Handout
For her half, Kerrigan began a help group for myeloma sufferers and their caregivers in the Myrtle Beach space.
She is back in remission and off prescription meds after present process a personalised kind of immunotherapy in 2023.
Kerrigan said that decrease drug costs across the board “would be a lifesaver for a lot of people.”
“Why should somebody that has cancer,” she added, “have to worry where we’re going to get our drugs in the United States?”
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