Whoa!

I'm not complaining - I swear i'm not (u all know that i of all people am not)...but 70degrees in FEBRUARY!!??!!!  the world is coming to an end - what the?!?!?!  of course, next week it'll probably snow - such is the weather in Atlanta - steups!! (sorry folks, i have no idea how to translate - it's a teeth sucking noise that we Trinis do)

Anyhoo, I've said before that sometimes i think that insurance is 1 of the biggest ripoffs ever.  But boy am i thankful for it.  My mother is an Executive Agent at Guardian Life and many good things have happened to her since working at Guardian Life and she is doing extremely well there - extremely grateful for that!  Yesterday i got a bill for my last infusion in the mail.  My copay is $40 on the day of and then i normally get a bill for 4.79.  Yesterday when i opened the bill, it was 23.95 - so, of course i needed to understand y it had jumped so much all of a sudden. and i logged onto the insurance co website.

well i discovered that by the time i'd started infusions last year, i'd already met my deductible for the year - hence the low bill (I'd spent so much on my health last year).  Of course i haven't done anything for this year as yet, so i have to meet my deductible before anything insurance kicks in.  Okay, i can live with that.

Then i saw the actual cost of the infusion - 5032 big ones every month!!  EVER GRATEFUL for the INSURANCE!!!!!!  how do sick people without it deal?  I guess they just deal with their ill health???  There was NO way that i could pay $5k monthly; i'd have to do an infusion a  year or something.  Maybe for sick people, insurance is not a the biggest ripoff afterall
:-)

Ampyra Updates

So, I've found out a little more about the new medication.  Remember the last thing i discovered was that it would cost $1056 for a 30-day supply?  Well i was on the manufacturer's site yesterday and found out that:

1. Some patients meeting a certain income requirement may be able to get it at no cost! (i can dream on about this - i am almost positive that i won't qualify)
2. Other patients who are on Medicare Part D (as opposed to A, B or C?) may be able to get some kind of financial assistance
3. Yet another subset of patients with private insurance (this is where I fall) may be able to get it for a copay of $40

WOOHOO!!!  I think that i can handle $40 a month for my medication.  The drug is also only going to be available thru specialized pharmacies and will be mailed to patients - it won't be available at ur local CVS.  I already use one of those pharmacies so here's hoping that mine will carry it and it won't be too much of a hassle for me to get it.  Altho, i will say that NOT having to fork out $1K a month is plenty to be happy about even if i have to run around the place like a chicken without a head to actually get it mailed to me.

There is also a Webcast being held on March 17th that i plan on attending; hopefully some of my questions will be answered there.