My friend Wendy is DEAD: she couldn't buy broccoli

[unapatriciated]

66. It's the same for many who have autoimmune disorders also.

My son was diagnosed with Dermatomyositis in 1991. He didn't have cancer but he had to have chemo treatments to wipe out his immune system and then was on methotrexate, cyclosporine, pednisone (for more than ten years) not to mention a host of other medications that dealt with the side effects of those three drugs. Total cost of his monthly medications was over two grand a month. When I lost my job (and insurance) the second year into his illness, our story was much the same as the woman in the op and thousands of others. I went through my savings, sold my home and ran up the credit cards for his medications and physical therapy treatments. He went on my ex-husbands insurance but was not covered for his pre-existing condition. I started advocating for health care reform in the early 90's in California and thankfully they listened to me and many others. They passed reform legislation regarding pre-existing conditions and the Fair Claims Practice Act. Even with these laws and very good insurance coverage, long term diseases or cancer are still very costly.

We need to deal with the pharmaceutical companies as well as the insurance industry. One of the drugs I mentioned above (cyclosporine) has been around since the early 50's and still is very expensive. They did not have a generic form until the middle 90's.

Even with insurance, catastrophic long term illnesses will wipe out ever thing you own. It is a full time job just fighting your insurance company in regards to constant denial of claims.

Michael Moore's 'Sicko' exposed them for the evil they were. Yet we still gave them a seat at the table and allowed them to continue to feast upon our loved ones at their weakest most vulnerable moments.