I am facing a serious question. At nearly 85 years old, am I as a person valuable enough to pay so much money for three gold-plated medicines?
I have risk level 5 aggressive prostate cancer., Gleason Score 9. My Medical oncologist started me on Orgovyx two weeks ago. The copay was $899 for 30 days supply—$30 a pill. The prognosis for my prostate cancer is a decent life quality of three to four years. Massive money can extend that time for many years.
I have the money, I have Medicare Advantage, and I am 84 and a half years old.
Each day sees me swallow Eliquis pills at $430 for three months supply, and $189 for three months supply Praluent, and an incredible $30 for a pill of Orgovyx. .
Yes, yes, I know, Medicare talks about a maximum out of pocket FOR APPROVED DRUGS. There are allegedly grants from non-profits and various other games available.
They say I can get all the pain killers I want off the street for a manageable sum. Millions of others do this every day, and live in some degree of pain-free comfort. .
The question remains. Am I really justified in passing this amount of money to the medical profession?
I would appreciate your thoughts. Maybe my current mood is the depression that results from ADT.
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Worked_the_World
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You should consider to change your Medicare Advantage plan for a straight supplement to parts A & B of Medicare and a direct part D Medicare with decent copayments. My Medicare part D maximum copayment for any drug they approve is $ 90 for 3 months supply.
You deserve the best treatment you can get, regardless of your age. You are being rip off by an insurance company.
My father lived a vital and optimistic life til 88 after 17 years of prostate cancer.
He never talked about being sick, or the money, or "identified" as a cancer patient.
He took medical marijuana gummies to keep his pain, mood, appetite regulated, and so that he could sleep.
He refused to take conventional pain meds because of the side effects. He never felt "high" as we regulated his gummy doses. We live in Michigan so it was legal - but who cares, you can get them from someone and it helped him for 5 years.
Sure, there were bad days, but he always focused on the positive, and always had a plan of something to look forward to.
Maybe it was building a model airplane
Maybe it was going to Florida again. Or up to Northern Michigan.
A week before he passed, he finished the renovations to a mall he designed with the architectural firm he owned in Michigan decades before. The Somerset Collection.
There were days he slept a lot. Some nights my mother and he cancelled plans, and I'd go over and bring dinner.
They went to the symphony.
My point is NO DOCTOR KNOWS HOW LONG YOU HAVE ON THIS PLANET.
AND, YOU ARE VALUED.
Find things you love.
Spend time with people you love. Get outside.
See if you can find medical marijuana gummies. If you take a CBD/THC/CBN combo, you will most likely never feel high if you take low doses.
YOU DO HAVE VALUE.
And, I pray for your happiness, your comfort, and your vitality.
Many thanks DadsDrDawn. Your Dad and I are the same. I support the congregation in my little church Sundays with playing preludes and postludes on the piano. Sometimes I do an offertory hymn as well. This helps with my mental confusion from ADT. I write historical fiction novels of an action and adventure genre. People on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and other sellers like them. I workout vigorously in a local gym. This helps with the bone loss and physical fatigue from the ADT.
My original question is, though, that is my money better applied to others with a future than on my few remaining decent years? It is still an open item.
My husband, 73, applied for financial aid for his Orgovyx from the manufacturer ....I had read on this forum that they only look at income not, not total assets. After paying out of pocket for four months, we decided to go ahead and apply for the aid....he was approved quickly, and actually we were never asked for any financial information. The approval is good for a year, and then he can reapply. $0 a month.
He finally got a Plan D medicare plan last year, in addition to traditional medicare with a supplement.....he pays more per month then he would have had he applied at 65, but it has been well worth it.
But your bigger question is "am I worth it"?
Of course you are!!! You sound like you are fit and very active, socially connected , loved and creative. Hopefully you have many years ahead of you...
If we are so blessed, my husband will be just as precious to me at 83, 93 or older if the universe is willing...
Though you didn't share all the details of your cancer, ie PSA at diagnosis, metastases, scans,other treatments, but still pretty sure your doctor can't nor should stamp you with an end date.
Medicare is finally negotiating the price of some pills, including Eliquis. The maximum out-of-pocket this year on Part D is $3500, going down to $2000 next year.
Thanks for your reply. I am aware of the Medicare announcement that they are negotiating the price of Eliquis and others. They hope to have success by 2026. Absent patent games and lawsuits, Eliquis will come off patent in 2028 in any case. It was supposed to come off in 2023 or so.
Here is my dilema. Eliquis starting pricing as a modest discount to the prevailing treatment that cost $16k a year. It was discounted to $14k without any insight of cost of manufacture.
My engineering background was in petroleum where we shipped ten-thousand gallon tank cars of products at low single digits a gallon.
I consulted in a Hoffman La-Roche facility for several months., that was developing a new AIDS drug. Their high-profit-margin operations, while hygienic and according to the governmen's Good Manufacturing Procedures, GMP, were sloppy and far from optimized. This was a revelation compared to the low-margin petroleum world. Their operators once lost in the plant a tub of fifty gallons that was worth about $640 million in the market place.
Medicare performs its horizontal arabesque on drug prices but nothing seems to change.
My original thought was to decline to participate in such games. How much damage can this near 85-year-old body sustain in the expected three to four years of decent life left? I have seen that additional treatments can prolong being undead for years.
That said, I am fighting with all I have, including serious weightlifting, near-daily cardio, and a good diet to mitigate the physical side effects of Orgovyx. I play piano in public wherever listeners will have me and write action/adventure historical novels for readers. I have three on Amazon and B&N now and have a fourth nearly ready.
Bottom line. I may have better uses of my money than Medicare/Manufacturer games.
Perhaps the essay above is an outgrowth of the depression from my ADT. Thoughts, friend?
You might be suffering survivor's guilt. You might feel better if you are equally generous to charitable causes, including prostate cancer organizations.
Just make a notation on your yearly1040 tax return that you wish all of your taxes are added to the US government fund which supports all those illegal aliens and NOT to the million of our US military veterans that need help and support.......
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