Anyone who's fought cancer knows that it's not just scary, but pricey, too.
"A lot of my patients cry — they're frustrated," says Dr. Ayalew Tefferi, a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic. "Many of them spend their life savings on cancer drugs and end up being bankrupt."
The average U.S. family makes $52,000 annually. Cancer drugs can easily cost a $120,000 a year. Out-of-pocket expenses for the insured can run $25,000 to $30,000 — more than half of a typical family's income.
"These drug prices are completely unsustainable," Tefferi says. "Pharmaceutical companies are in greed mode, and it's sad. It's what I call completely unregulated."
According to a 2013 study, these steep drug prices cause about 10 to 20 percent of cancer patients to skip or compromise the prescribed treatment. Another study found that the launch price of cancer drugs, adjusted for inflation, increased by an average of $8,500 a year between 1995 and 2013.
To make the point, Tefferi recruited 117 other doctors from across the U.S. who share his concerns. Together, they agreed on seven recommendations to make cancer drugs affordable that they want the federal government to consider. The recommendations are laid out in a commentary Thursday in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
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7 comments:
That's because people are saying no. Can't afford it so. God forbid if I get cancer no treatment just morphine, weed,and beer. These so called professionals aren't going to make money off me with false hope. I watched my father go through it and my mother getting bills 3 year's after he died.
1:04 Good luck getting the morphine. The drug police here will make that impossible for you.
Intravenous (not oral) Vitamin C has been used very effectively to treat many types of cancer.
Biological and some clinical evidence suggest that high-dose intravenous vitamin C could also increase the effectiveness of cancer chemotherapy drugs.
Two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, along with Ewen Cameron, MD, of Scotland, did a scientific study proving that 10 grams of Vitamin C, given by I.V., could extend the life of advanced cancer patients six-fold.
There is currently an entire field of research called orthomolecular medicine which is devoted to natural treatments, especially Vitamin C, and their effects on disease.
Of course, cancer treatment drugs are very expensive, and the pharmaceutical companies who make them are very jealous of those billions of dollars in profits.
That will certainly have an impact on what you hear (or don't hear) about Vitamin C therapy.
@3:30. My guess is you don't have cancer. What you are saying is nonsense. Science does matter. Your commentary has nothing to do with Science. As a cancer survivor I am weary of well intentioned but ill informed and frankly hurtful nonsense like this.
cannabis oil.
I watched my wife die slowly over 2 years while she was given IV's of drugs that cost......$20,000 a bag!!! TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS (!!) for a QUART of some liquid. More expensive, by far, than gold itself.
That doesn't count the fees for the doctors, the rooms, the equipment, the "consultation" fees, the travel expenses, the surgeries ($45,000), the OTHER drugs she was prescribed and the experimental drugs they tried.
Twenty thousand dollars for ONE treatment?? Some bills were in excess of $25,000 a piece! Cancer treatment expenses are a big problem for the victims, but a brand new Maserati for the providers. Why mess with the golden goose? Stop thinking that your life matters to anyone except YOU. It your MONEY that matters to them.
The insurance companies got rich. The doctors got rich. The hospitals got rich. She died.
Just the way they plan it.
Keep cheering.
11:35 AM
Sorry for your loss. I didnt' know
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