My $500 Pill Revealed
Mother Jones
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Have you ever wondered what a $500 pill looks like? Well, here’s your answer: it looks like pretty much any other pill.
Anyway, I’m supposed to take this for 21 days, then a week off, then another 21 days, etc. This will last a few months before we know if it’s working. If it does work, then I’ll be taking it forever (I think). So that’s $126,000 per year to keep Kevin alive. Of course, I pay only a fraction of that thanks to having excellent health insurance, and I’m sure that even Kaiser pays nowhere near that list price. Maybe half that, or a third. Still, pretty expensive!
Luckily I’m not on Obamacare. From what I hear, my case would have gone straight to a death panel, which almost certainly would have decided that my societal worth didn’t measure up to the cost of the treatment. And who could argue? I mean, blogging? Seriously?
POSTSCRIPT: I forgot to mention something in my previous health update: I feel great. Not 100 percent, mind you, but pretty good. My stomach is in fine fettle (in fact, I’m overeating these days), I’m sleeping well, and my energy level has recovered almost to normal. The long-term prognosis for the multiple myeloma is obviously still uncertain, and that’s an unhappy thing, but in the meantime at least I feel good for the first time in eight months!
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