F(*#ing insurance

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10. I'm not on it any more (bad reaction)

but I took Stivarga last year, it was still relatively new. Although thanks to my insurance at the time, I didn't have to pay much, when I got my "explanation of benefits" it turns out they were charging $12,000+ a month for this oral chemo. That's just outrageous.

I do better understand when I hear "if you can't afford your prescription, Astra-Zeneca may be able to help" (although that wasn't my med). I used to wonder how they could give it away for free. But that's not the case. They mean, "if you can't afford your CO-PAY", because they'd rather pick up the piddly co-pay on my behalf and collect the real money from insurance.

If the U.S. had collective bargaining for prescription meds, like most real countries, we wouldn't have half the trouble we do now.