Scans, Insurance, and Jesus

Today was a full day at the cancer center for me, like it always is when I have to get my scans. The bone scan requires an injection four hours ahead of time, so you come, get the injection, and then kill time until the actual scan. When I also have a CT scheduled, they try to do that during the wait. It also requires prep ahead of time (I have to drink the contrast material in stages), but only an hour before the scan and again 30 minutes ahead of time. Each of these prep “appointments” only last a few minutes, so most of the time you get to hang out in the waiting area.

Today I also got my monthly lab work and my “bones of steel” Xgeva injection. Since I am no longer working, my insurance will stop covering me November 30 and Kevin’s insurance will pick us up December 1. I’m extremely thankful that we have insurance and that the Affordable Care Act has made pre-existing conditions a thing of the past. But the timing of our switch is somewhat unfortunate. With only one month left in the year, basically everything we have done in December will have to be paid for out-of-pocket. And then the deductible will start over again January 1.

So I tried to get everything done in November. I was mostly successful. The only thing I wasn’t able to do was to see my oncologist and refill my Ibrance. Unfortunately, it’s too soon to refill my Ibrance, so I’ll have to do it in December. Since the Ibrance is an $11,000 drug, I‘m a little concerned what the total will be when I check out under the new insurance next week.

Cancer is expensive. If I didn’t have insurance and if Pfizer didn’t provide co-pay assistance for Ibrance (which I’m hoping to utilize next week or I’ll have a $3,000-$5,000 bill for one month of drugs), I would probably have had to declare bankruptcy my first year of treatment. Either that or choose my treatment based on what I can afford, which probably wouldn’t be much. One CT scan alone is $11,000 and I needed three this year, just as an example.

Medical bills are devastating to those without insurance. They’re even devastating to people who do have insurance. As if the illness itself isn’t enough pain and worry, there is endless stress over how you’re going to pay for all that treatment you need, especially when you’re too sick to work. I don’t want to make this post anything political or controversial, so I’ll just close by saying that Jesus tells us to care for the sick. I’ve never really thought about those verses in the context of health insurance or healthcare reform, but perhaps there’s something there. Thoughts to ponder tonight.