The reason why insurance companies do not like to pay for the medication I just wrangled and sweated to get approved is because this particular drug costs between $62,000 and $112,000 per year per patient.
When the average person imagines “using insurance” or “filling a prescription,” they probably envision swinging by a CVS or Walgreens and picking up a bottle of antibiotics. When you live with a chronic illness, though, this pedestrian image bears no resemblance whatsoever to the knock-down, drag-out realities of negotiating with for-profit insurance corporations and “specialty pharmacies” that deal exclusively in expensive, often injectable, drugs.
Since being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in July 2007, I’ve become a veritable expert in navigating insurance companies, pharmacies, drug manufacturers, and like.