My source for costs is Drugs.com which may or may not be accurate. Since I am at sea today and not checking the Internet I decided to see what my tax dollars are buying. This, of course has nothing to do with my military pension, my Social Security or VA disability pension. It may be the first and only time in my life where I am getting more out of the system than I am paying in. If there was any question in your mind, Big Pharma makes an obscene amount of profit. I don’t own stock in any, my morals are simply not that flexible.
So let’s look at the daily list which is resaonable for for anyone with follicular NHL ON R-CHOP. First the daily meds;
synthroid daily and VitD-3 q/week.
The additions due to the chemo kicking my butt. Levoquin generic 100/$1010.52 which comes to $10.10/day at the lower dose. Acyclovir $017-0.35/tab for 200 mg which means ~$.80-1.49/day @ 4 tabs/day Much cheaper.
The long standing friends: synthroid costs $1.33/day. VitD3
Is $.06-1.55/week. Cheap at any price.
Should we ignore rescue meds (migraine or nausea?) sumatriptan runs $22-80/9 tabs which is a standard month.
Now we move on to Chemo: Rutaximab-$6000/cycle. Cytoxin? Made in Germany. Unable to find injectable pricing but will continue looking. Adriamycin in generic runs $136-182/100 ml which is about right. Vincristine is cheap, $17/dose. Then there is my hated prednisone – which is $28/tab.
Did I mention the 6 days of Zarixo @ $298.89/dose. Or the Zofran @ $1240/30 8mg tabs.
After looking at the list, I decided that I am better off not adding things up. And, I am all in favor of a National Health Service. I like the VA. I don’t have to worry about paying. I don’t worry about soneone cutting corners to save pennies.
Everytime some idiot wants to privatize the system, please tell your law makers NO! I put in my 30 years and retired with this particular disease already on board. Pharma doesn’t need to make 25-40% profits. Veterans need to get quality of care without someone choosing a less than optimal treatment.
Off Soap box. I plan to be around enough years to pay taxes as one of my contributions back to the system.
