Seriously - I just swallowed fifty dollars, right now. And I do it every day.
I take antiretroviral medication for HIV every 12 hours. More specifically, I take two of the somewhat newer meds -- one called Truvada, which is a combination of two medications itself, and another called Isentress, which is one of the most recently approved medications to fight HIV.
I only just began taking them recently, and was incredibly relieved that insurance agreed to cover them. But I wasn't prepared for what greeted me on that receipt.
You see, when I go pick up any medication from the pharmacy, I pay a copay -- $25.00 -- and the pharmacy prints on the receipt, "Your insurance saved you $____!"
For the Truvada, it said, "Your insurance saved you $1,034.00!"
I kind of swooned when I read that. I knew medications were expensive...but holy pursebomb, Batman! Isentress is newer, so I figured it must cost even more. I was right, though not to the exponential extent I feared.
"Your insurance saved you $1,069.00!"
The first medication is a once-a-day, which means each pill costs about $35.00. The second one is a twice daily dose, which means each pill costs around $18.00.
So, I just swallowed about $53.00. And I'm going to do it every day, probably for a long time.
Even if this shock leaves me dizzy, at least the medications haven't had the horrid side effects of the ones I took five years ago, and the number of pills has gone from eight a day to three. This is all good change, and I welcome it...I'm still just struck dumb by the cost to the uninsured person.
I count myself among those fortunate to still have a stable job and insurance, and working where I do, I'm very, very cognizant of our AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which is right across the hall. Every state has one, although I believe I recently read that, due to budget difficulties, California's may engender major cuts, potentially leading to major difficulties for a whole lot of folks who have HIV like I do, but aren't in such a fortunate position.
I worry what will happen if the economy continues to destabilize here -- my husband's job is not so stable. He's not HIV+ like I am, but he has depression medications of his own that aren't cheap. It's funny what repeated lifelong denigration for who you are does to you, isn't it?
I'm sure some conservatives would privately say that we made the choices which led to our being infected, so, frankly, we deserve it, and we can either pay for meds or pay for our choices. Just like knowing someone gay leads people to see gay people as people who deserve to be treated like people, I imagine they know people who have made choices that affect their help. Perhaps those people swallow fifty bucks every morning, too. Maybe, just maybe, they'll consider that every person deserves dignified healthcare they can afford...even those of us who have diseases that they, like my grandmother, think are God's judgment for the gays.