What the fuck is the deal with health care in this country. There is a reason that I’ve avoided seeing a doctor for the past 10+ years and today I remembered why. I had my initial visit with my new Primary Care doc today as a result of my recent leg injury. This was a follow up for that, as well as a new patient consultation. First, good choice on the doctor. He’s younger, likely my age or perhaps a little younger, he’s knowledgeable, and if my gaydar is still working, he’s likely gay which makes me more comfortable since he can understand that aspect of my life. When it comes to health care, I have never found it helpful to hide that part of my identity from my doctors. It does me a great dis-service to ignore discussions which might pertain only to gay men (in effect those discussions dealing with sexuality, STD’s, and the like). Granted, I am not in need of having those types of discussions at this point but it helps knowing right from the get go that there is no need for me to concoct elaborate stories about my life and my life choices in order to get at the health care that I need. This sort of thing is a big issue in the gay community. Due to fear of discrimination or just blatant ”I won’t treat you because your gay”, I’m not going to waste my time or my money with a doctor that is unwilling to provide unbiased or unhelpful treatments for whatever comes my way.
So now on to my issue with health care. Those of you who know me, also know that I was the lucky kid in my family that got to inherit my Grandmother’s Psoriasis. It’s not nearly as bad as her’s was but it’s a pain in the ass all the same. One of the goals of actually getting to a doctor this year is to look at long term treatment options to control this chronic disease for which currently there is no cure. I’ve been lucky that most of my problem areas are the most common (knees and elbows) and there are a range of treatment options available. The problem is that treatments are going to cost me a fucking fortune. I started today with a prescription for Dovonex. This is a topical cream that behaves like a steroid cream but is not a steroid. It’s a synthetic Vitamin D3 product. I went to Walgreens down the road from my house to have this prescription filled and I ended up having a co-pay of $75.00 because there is no generic and it is a “non-preferred” drug according to Atena’s formulary. The Retail cost of this cream is $240.00 a tube, one tube can last between 30 and 60 days depending on how much is needed to cover affected areas on the body. So essentially, I can now count on a prescription cost of $75.00 every month or so in order to treat an incurable problem, using a cream that may or may not work at all. And this is the low end of the treatment options for Psoriasis. Typical treatment of Psoriasis always begins with creams and steroid creams which are the least invasive and least damaging to the body. Every person’s case is different and it can often take multiple tries to find something that works. If creams are ineffective, the next option are light treatments or UV treatments. These treatments are often 1-2 times a week and I’ve been told co-pay’s on those can be near $100 a trip when done at a dermatologists office (the alternative to this is a tanning booth however those are not monitored by doctors, so I’m not considering it). Beyond UV treatments, the next level would be biologicals. These are injectable drugs, many with unknown side effects because they are so new and for the most part untested… Largely in part due to the cost of treatment. So, you can see that by beginning treatment for this issue which in reality causes me very few problems in general other than mild discomfort and itching, I’ve opened a can of worms now for a lifetime of medical treatment with costs that will run into the thousands of dollars and no expectation that my Psoriasis will ever fully go away, I can hope, but I can’t count on it. I’m not saying that it’s not worth doing (because I’d love to have clear skin again), what I’m saying is that it should not cost me my life savings to get treated.
So, after that excitement, thank God tomorrow is payday. I had to dip into the savings account to pay for the prescription (I was not anticipating a co-pay that high) and lucky for me, my bonus arrives next week on Tuesday. Without exception this year, I will be opening an additional bank account to use for medical expenses. One of my money managing techniques is to have separate accounts for major things (general bills, leisure, and now medical). Let’s all hope that the topical creams take care of my issue or you all will be hearing me bitch a lot more about money on this blog. Now, since I have no money left to spend, I’ll be staying home the rest of the day playing video games and watching TV…at least thats free.
