Well, I finally got to pay $665 for a month's supply of a drug.

[NNadir]

24. After I meet my deductible my medications are free.

Out of pocket, assuming I do not require hospitalization, drugs and payments per year are around $2700.

I believe that counts toward the $8,000 yearly maximum, co pays included.

I have lived a long and overall wonderful life with some pain, psychological and otherwise. My worth to society is not such that I would agree to spending hundreds of thousand dollars, my money or government money or even insurer's moneyfor extreme efforts to extend my life for short periods with low quality of life. On the other hand, a child with cancer or in need of heart surgery or the like should be supported by society. The money spent to keep Steven Hawkings alive was well spent, and this is surely the case for people nowhere near as famous or important as he was.

There is a point at which limited resources should be invested in the younger generations. I recall that the cost of my father's death from cancer resulting from his tobacco addiction was over $250,000, this in the 1990's, most of it incurred after the point there was no hope for survival although no one other than me recognized as much. It was insured, but I question whether it might not have been better to keep him comfortable as the end came rather than engage in the extreme measures peddled as "hope."

My $665 a month drug should extend my life for a longer period in which I may remain useful, but it would not be appropriate if there were no hope for recovery from some other syndrome. It might actually be cruel in that case.

This may be controversial to say, but as an old man staring down mortality, it's how I feel.