Bernie Sanders
@SenSanders
In America, 1 in 4 cancer patients declared bankruptcy or lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure in 2022, while 42% deplete their life savings within 2 years.
This is insane and unspeakable. Getting cancer should not cause bankruptcy. We must cancel medical debt"
Did Bernie happen to provide the source of these statistics? Sorry. I don’t trust the old socialist and these figures don’t sound right. As they say there “are lies, damn lies and statistics.”
If you find more accurate data, feel free to post. That was 2022. Whats the cost of Provenge, Pluvicto, or Xofigo? I know Medicare Part D Drugs Out of Pocket Catastrophic Stage limit will go from 8000 this year to $2000 in 2025.
And what did the insures do. They doubled the cost of the part D drug coverage this year to spread the cost across all enrollees
They increased both of our AARP UNITED HEALTH CARE PART D Premiums from $28.50 to $58.20 each this year...
Usually over the years it's gone up or down a dollar or two depending on how the screwed with the tier formularies and out of pocket costs... this year we are really taking it in the ass...
We are on traditional Medicare, we have Part B paid through our Social Security and AARP UHC no doctor restriction supplemental plans as well as their PART D paid for by us out of our pocket.
She is on plan F. I missed it by 2 months by virtue of turning 65 post offering it. She is grandfathered in, and I am on Plan G. Same coverage, just an initial annual deductible for me
The entire shooting match totals a combined payment of $908 a month for our medical coverages. That's just premiums
.
That's how insurance works and is supposed to work.
I know that... The point is politicians claiming a victory over the price of a certain medication... the drug company complies and makes up the loss on the group as a whole.... It's the shell game the all play...
Just like the student loan "forgiveness" scam. Nothing is being truly forgiven... The banks are being paid off that can't collect on these defaulted loan borrowers. The individual loan costs are being spread out over the taxpayers...
You know they exempted student loans from personal bankruptcy proceedings they are not dischargeabel debt... Which preserves the lender's interest in the loan.
If some one cannot actually pay there debts then bankruptcy proceedings actually provide "forgiveness" of such debt.
I'm among the many who never acquired a student loan, but am expected to pay back the loans of others...
Stick with a focus on Prostate cancer pls.
From what I have read, all of these can be covered by Medicare, except Xofigo may be covered by part B or D. There are also drug company assistance for seniors.
Regardless, you are right to question how much really gets covered. Whether it is 1 out of 4 cancer patients or not, no one should go bankrupt because they can't pay for life-saving medical care.
As for the socialist Bernie Sanders comment, this is about human decency as a country. Do we want to stand purely for personal wealth or do we want to provide for those who need it? I would hope that we can find a way to take care of those who need medical care, no matter their political affiliation, economic status or other other meaningless metrics.
I happen to love socialism. And Bernie. It’s a shame it’s gotten a bad rap from right-wingers. What it comes down to is basic human decency and a willingness to help your neighbor. But we’re a selfish society, that puts profits above compassion.
Back to cancer. I remember when my mom was diagnosed with (lung) cancer, but she was uninsured, so she was treated by emergency room visits and went from crisis to crisis, and died by not being able to breathe. No one suggested treating her cancer, just admitted her each time it came to a crisis point. Until she died.
Now I’m the one with cancer, and I’m very lucky and privileged to be insured when it happened (thanks Obama!). One of my great fears was spending our retirement savings for treatment, and I have to say, I’ve been very lucky. And did I mention privileged?
But, others aren’t so lucky and can’t afford the (hopefully) life-saving treatment I’ve had. There are poor people out there and they need help. Those of you who are Christian, aren’t you supposed to love your neighbor as yourself? And help the poor? I’m just a wicked non-believer, but I have the empathy to care for those less fortunate than myself.
Anyway… my 2 ¢.
I recall a wife posting here. Her husband had died and left her deep in debt to pay for the therapies which failed to cure him. This is so sad.
You are correct. With Bernie, the debt would be transferred to the American taxpayer. We already know one of the ramifications. Out of control government spending has caused this crazy inflation. Eventually this massive debt will destroy our economic system.
I wish I knew the answer to this dilemma, no one wants to see cancer patients impoverished by their medical bills. What I worry about is if you adopt the socialized medicine model (basically free health care) you will in the end severely curtail the research and development of new life saving medicines like Provenge, Pluvicto, or Xofigo. Yes, and the U.S. already has an unsustainable debt because of out of control spending. Because of budget concerns they are already pressuring drug companies who have to decide whether to risk millions (or billions) of dollars on the crapshoot of a new treatment. With the payoff many years down the line. I just pray our country (where the vast majority of the new drugs are developed) will come come up with a cure for PCa before socialism takes complete control.
Pluvicto is based on research from Purdue University and further developed by the Deutsche Krebsforschungszentrum and Heidelberg University in Germany. It's now owned by Novartis, a Swiss Pharma company.
Provenge was developed by Dendreon, which is owned by Sanpower Group, a Chinese company.
Xofigo was developed by Algeta from Norway in a partnership with Bayer from Germany,
Germany, Switzerland, Norway and China all have totally different health care systems (actually more socialized than ours in the USA) so your examples of life saving drugs were developed or are owned by companies from outside the USA and outside the health care system of the USA.
50% of working age adults in the US don't work at all or contribute to the general health funds only suck them up.
I know, literally, over 100 Cancer patients and NONE have declared bankruptcy OR lost their homes!
Without a REPUTABLE source this statement is purely political hogwash designed to scare and push single payer health care.
I'm Canadian and enjoy socialized healthcare. And I'm on leading edge triplet therapy. And now I'm healthy enough to go back to work part-time.
I was diagnosed from a backache because my doctor didn't believe in PSA testing. Thanks to your US Preventative Services Task force recommendations in 2012. Annual PSA testing is not actually approved in in the Canadian jurisdiction in which I live. Is that stupid or what?
The weird thing is Canadians live longer on the average than Americans. And yet we spend a lower percentage of our GNP on healthcare than the US. It's the evils of socialism. Not 😂.
(There are lots of op-eds, and policy papers and economic analyses of this situation - it seems the overhead of private multi-payer insurance organization and billing is a huge part of the economy - and it's just a lot of wasted time and resources. Fun fact - even though we have mostly public Health Care in Canada we still have "drug navigators"!)
I'm also aware that there are terrible things happening in healthcare in the richest countries in the world. Look at the (socialized!) NHS in UK. And if you don't live near a big city in Canada you will likely get substandard care.
I agree we should not bring politics on to this forum. But healthcare policy is not really politics in that sense. It's how the very difficult problem of healthcare is organized.
From time to time I write here on the APC Forum about why I don't like "whack-a-mole" therapy. There's a big profit incentive in the US healthcare system to do a lot of crazy interventions. Which so often don't seem to be that helpful.
And on the topic of insurance itself, this is just about community, that we belong to a community, and that there are some things that communal institutions can do efficiently, that just makes sense.
Like in a previous era where some farmer's barn burns down and everybody comes over to rebuild the barn together. American-style fragmented private insurance is a long way from the idea of institutionalizing our shared fates.
Doesn't mean there are not challenges. But the idea that we're all alone on our own island is crazy individualism. The theory of insurance, whether it's private or public, is just that you're part of a community. And you try and spread the cost of disaster around. And - even because we have some degree of mutual affection.
Insurance is effectively a medical commune. The benefits go to some. If there are too many people using the benefits either the premium goes up or there is a decrease in benefits. It's the same whether the medical commune is the employees at a single corporation, or whether the medical commune is a whole state, province or country.
Insurance basically is a gamble you want to lose. Those of us on here have won the gamble at the cost of our health.
John
such a terrible place to be in life🤬. Not only are you losing your life, family and friends but to lose your home due to the overpriced drugs and such is an awful truth in AMERICA. MOST OF THESE DRUGS have there start in our college system then a big drug company comes in and buys the patients and jacks to price way up. Our congress and President just sits back and takes the money from the drug companies. Shame on them. 🤬🤬🤬
You make valid points. I believe that there is a balance point that has to be struck between our emphasis on high productivity, tax breaks for the very wealthy, massive profits for big pharma, massive national debt and unsustainable healthcare costs that are at odds with what is being offered as treatment options to patients by their doctors.
Patients believe that these treatments are available to them and have no clue about the costs and how they will be paid. There needs to be transparency between doctors and patients, pharmacy sharing drug costs to doctors versus billing to patients, how patient insurance coverage works with these drugs.
Right now, the process is reactive, instead of proactive, is overly complex, especially when on Medicare and supplemental insurance. Patients need assistance in understanding the costs upfront and how much is covered by insurance. Right now, healthcare billing offices refer you to insurance carriers and they require medical records and are opaque about there approval process. They tend to reject any new treatment due to cost, using the supposed "standard of care".
It's a circular firing squad and the patient is in the middle. At the very least, we need a quick and clear process for healthcare professionals and patients to obtain real costs to each party for treatment. This will facilitate better decision-making based on the real costs for care.
Do you even know me? More caring than me? What nerve. Sheesh! Go away.
Well, you’ve certainly loss my respect. Please don’t engage with me again. Thanks.
You’re very rude. Please stop and respect the other members of this forum. We’re all dealing with a deadly disease, and maybe it might be nice of you to not make our time on this earth any worse. Is this how you are more “decent?”
What part of don’t engage with me don’t you understand. Go be hateful to someone else.
I thought that the forum would go in the direction of testimonials, costs of treatment for advanced pc, whats not covered, and abt those who must choose a cheaper, but less effective treatment, or become guinea pigs. Surprised this forum got side tracked on Bernie Sanders, socialism, the long-term costs to individuals of these various plans, and the various cliches of non-private healthcare. A closer look at single-payer is that taxpayers will save millions.
To the moderators, please delete this useless thread.
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