Listen: Abby, Judy And Eighty Thousand Dollars discussed on Marketplace

"Did they say anything about it possibly being like cancer Abby was right a few weeks later her mom Judy learned she had stage four cancer complicate things the cancer called extra memory Paget's disease is super rare yeah it's one and a good cell yeah that's Judy she's seventy three and a bit of a classic midwestern mom he's a retired guidance counselor talks with strangers around town but dealing with this rare diagnosis it was overwhelming you can't think straight it was so helpful to have still family members who were emotionally distraught also but a touch removed a touch removed to be able to say okay we need to do this we need to do that so the rest of her family stepped in with surgery help chemotherapy clinical trials the burden of making the right or wrong decision is more I think on the family then on the doctors because they're simply giving you their best information but it's weak they need doctors appointments got first second third opinions a team on colleges that a breast cancer drug called interlinks was duties best shot but it's super expensive it would cost a hundred and eighty thousand dollars to take for a full year it was too much Judy is covered by Medicare and like lots of Americans also have secondary insurance she dealt with a private inter to try to get this drug covered and insurance companies will usually cover the cost of your links to treat breast cancer but not the rare cancer Judy has so I decided to call the insurer up and so I am on the phone with this lady and she is not a bad person but she is representing like in my life you know one of the evils I decided to do a little fact finding basically saying Hey let's say I have this rare cancer I know there's a specific drug out there that can prolong my life but insurance won't cover it and I was like what am I supposed to do and I was I think when she was like well you know can you ask your doctor to change your diagnosis Abby felt like the insurance company was implying that in order to get this medication a doctor would have to fudge the diagnosis say it's breast cancer and not extra memory Paget's disease and I laughed I was like what are you talking about and she was like I don't know what to tell you so the insurer wasn't going to help next they applied to the pharmaceutical company to see if they can get the drug for free the company said Judy and her husband were solidly middle class make too much money do you couldn't believe it you just laugh it just didn't seem real then duties doctor had one last idea here it was called a compassionate to the pharmaceutical company I kind of thought it would be a heart felt you know about the life of this perky leading but it wasn't it was really technical in science he but it worked the company agreed to give the drug to duty for free but two months after she started taking it they got bad news it had marked her cancer had spread L. muscle on my body had tricked me so now she's trying another truck this one is covered by insurance but"

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Abby, Judy And Eighty Thousand Dollars discussed on Marketplace

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