That medical miracle can cost you, but there may be more sensible solutions.

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Imagine having a problem none of your doctors could solve, except there is a drug you could take that would help you feel better while bankrupting you. Crazy as it sounds, there are a number of drug companies that have developed and approved medications that may cost over 100,00 per year.  For most of us, it could quickly wipe out our savings.   Worse, many of these medications may not even cure the problem but may just relieve it, while causing other problems such as a compromised immune system. It's no secret that drug prices are insane and you should never have to consider doing a go fund page just to afford your drug copayment. It's also no secret that there may be other solutions to your psoriasis such as high dosage vitamin d which can work in many cases as psoriasis is closely linked with vitamin D deficiency, something most patients would never hear from their doctors. Perhaps, the problem lies in the fact that solving problems with functional medicine and dietary supplementation is less sexy than having a medical super specialist that you were trying to see after a several-month wait, only to find out they just cost more than a different approach to care. What is a health consumer to do?   Do doctors even have the ability to think outside the box if the large hospital system purchased their practice group? Why don't insurance companies adequately cover functional medicine and other more sensible ways of treating what ails us?   Unfortunately, many of the problems we have come down to the quality of food we eat as food are medicine. The NY Times recently reported on the problem with high-priced drugs and how it is draining the wallets of hard-working Americans. While there are no miracle cures, a drug may seem to be a miracle after spending so much time looking for an answer to your problem that is less harmful, more affordable, and perhaps may actually cure you of your affliction. It sounds like the NY Times reported on how miracle drugs can cure you of your life savings instead.   What is the cure when capitalism meets healthcare?   We are living in an age where we are seeing this in real-time.  Insurance companies will do anything to make a buck.  Ditto for hospital systems and drug companies.   Shouldn't all this be about finding reasonable solutions at a reasonable cost for patients? Check out the NY Times article below

The Medicine Is a Miracle, but Only if You Can Afford It

A wave of new treatments have cured devastating diseases. When the costs are too much, even for the insured, patients hunt for other ways to pay.

By Gina Kolata and Francesca Paris Feb. 7, 2023 April Crawford never thought she’d be begging for help on GoFundMe, but she has run out of options. She has multiple sclerosis, and Mavenclad, the drug that could slow her decline, has a list price of $194,000 a year. Her Medicare insurance will pay for most of it, but she has a co-pay of $10,000. Ms. Crawford, 47, doesn’t have $10,000 and has no way to get it. A law signed last year will put a $2,000 annual limit on out-of-pocket costs for Medicare patients like her — but not until 2025. Even at that price, money is tight in her household. She and her husband, who is disabled with COPD, live in Oliver Springs, Tenn., with a nephew who was disabled by a traumatic brain injury. All three of them rely on federal disability payments. So she posted an appeal on GoFundMe in August. At the time this article was published, she had raised $20. Read more