Has your insurance or Medicaid plan turned you down for hep C treatment?

[lporterrn]

I am looking for someone who has HCV and has been denied treatment by their insurer (private or public), and is willing to be interviewed for a documentary. You have to be willing to be public, as this documentary will be aired on CNN. If so, please send a personal message to me. Thank you.

[lil_debi1964]

Hello, You asked if anyone has been turned down for the hep c treatment, Well I have the only insurance I have is medicaid, The drug companies are making a fortune on sick people, and I think that is wrong to do. I am willing to do whatever I have to do to get my treatment! If I can help, please contact me @ lil_debi64@yahoo.com   

[lporterrn]

Thank you - I appreciate the offer.

[seekir]

From Wikipedia regarding HIV treatment costs—
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_HIV_treatment

This is a dilemma for people like me and countless others with various illnesses:

...treatments, typically drug regimens, are the products of extremely costly and resource intensive clinical research. Once the research is complete, the actual cost of the drugs is much lower... If the drug developers do not recover market cost, then they lose their research investment and certainly have no motivation to invest further in research.

I'm treatment naive with HCV (genotype 1a). I've been looking into buying insurance here in the U.S. so that I can finally benefit from the apparently miraculous development of Sovaldi and other new drugs to treat HCV, which are especially welcome to those of us with stubborn genotypes. One provider's rep has already asked on the phone if I have a pre-existing condition. I probably should have asked why the question was pertinent since PEC's purportedly aren't a disqualifying factor in the current U.S. health insurance market. In retrospect answering his question honestly and failing to ask why he was inquiring if I had any PEC's seems to have been a mistake. There has been no follow-up call encouraging me to enlist me in their ranks of customers.

Congressman Alan Grayson(D) got on the House floor and said the Republican plan is, “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”

[lporterrn]

Seekir - my blood is boiling over that question. I HOPE it was asked to help locate providers and ascertain that your meds were covered, but not asked in the right way, was it!

I had good luck working with an broker...

[seekir]

...I HOPE it was asked to help locate providers and ascertain that your meds were covered...

I'd like to think so, but their failure to follow-up after learning of my condition suggests their sales people have been given some incentive to eliminate (or reduce the number of) participants with pre-existing conditions. I suppose it only makes sense for their bottom line, though it's disappointing for me. He initially claimed he could provide a plan for $220/month which seemed astonishingly low. He asked a few questions then quoted a number above $400 (acceptable for me in the circumstances). When I said "that's not $220," he informed me that I sounded younger than I actually am (60) and proceeded to ask about PEC's. This is a large corporation with the initials "K.P."

How did you locate a broker?

[lporterrn]

I asked around. If you live in CA, I can recommend someone.

[seekir]

I'm on the Big Island of Hawaii. But I appreciate the offer anyway. I'll see what I can learn on my own.