

Why I Had to Buy My Wife's Inhaler on the Dark Web - traverseda
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-i-had-to-buy-my-wifes-inhaler-on-the-dark-web

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bdcravens
"We had just obtained health insurance through Kentucky’s health care
exchange... a plan with low prescription co-pays...the total ... with
insurance applied, turned out to be around $300."

I have Cystic Fibrosis, so I understand expensive medicines.

There's the co-pay, but also the deductible. At the beginning of the cycle,
you have to meet the deductible before you start seeing the low co-pay.

In my situation, I know January is always a big hit, where I automatically
spend $1000, since in a given month I take tens of thousands of dollars in
medications. Every month after that, I may spend tens of dollars for the same
prescriptions.

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Mz
Tens of thousands sounds high, even for CF. I am curious if that means you are
taking Vertex.

(No obligation to answer. I also have CF and the figures are usually more like
$2-3k/mo, last I checked. So, just wondering.)

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bdcravens
No, I'm not on Vertex (Kalydeco), since I'm delta f508 homozygous, and that
treatment was just approved.

Obviously I'm referring to retail cost. A quick peek at the most expensive
ones, according to my insurance plan: Creon ($4500), Tobi ($7300), Pulmozyme
($5400), Cayston ($7200).

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Mz
Thank you.

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vlunkr
It's depressing that our medicine is so incredibly overpriced in this day and
age. This is the problem we need to fix before we worry about getting everyone
health care, in my opinion.

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honopu
look up Hydroxyprogesterone Caproate. $1500 a dose to keep a baby in the womb.

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macjohnmcc
My step father has to take a pill that costs insurance $800 a day.

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Mz
I have respiratory problems. I used to pay insurance claims for a living. At
one time, I was studying to become an urban planner. In order to get off the
prescription drugs, whose side effects were killing me, I have pursued a whole
lot alternative treatments for my medical condition.

I will just say that there are a great many things wrong in the world that
contribute to this kind of scenario. For one thing, asthma is on the rise due
to pollution. We are slow to address problems like that, even while
documenting the connection, meanwhile we are happy to keep prescribing drugs
for it and then complain about the financial cost. Being sick all the time and
needing drugs all the time costs a lot more than mere money.

I hate the state of things in America today and I hate how insurance works.
But there is really a lot more going on than just that. It's sad that we seem
unable to have good discussions about other underlying causes and mostly just
want to talk trash about pricing.

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brianwawok
Isn't pollution in the US on a fairly steady decline? I know for instance
modern cars make 5% of the junk cars in the 80s did.

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Mz
I don't know if overall pollution is on a fairly steady decline. I do know
that population is up and there are studies that correlate poor air quality in
certain neighborhoods with increases in asthma diagnoses, need for
medications, frequency of attacks, etc. This is something urban planners used
to concern themselves with -- how the built environment and development
impacts human health -- and that focus is much less common these days.

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mrbill
I've bought my Albuterol rescue inhalers from an overseas pharmacy for years.

Price of one, _with insurance copay_ , at Walgreens: $15

Price of one (I never order just one) from overseas: $4.50

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drethemadrapper
WHat an informative write-up to get a layman started with darknet. It is also
reassuring that people could trust it to some extent.

We live in a world that is turned upside down \o/. The good way is just the
bad way turned inside out. As it is above; so it is below!

