Patients Share Of Expensive Specialty Drugs Is Rising - Kaiser Health News (choices: eating vs insurance costs...)

Patients Share Of Expensive Specialty Drugs Is Rising - Kaiser Health News

"....The coinsurance was killing them. "It was a choice between that and eating," says Gary Ryness.
Working with an insurance consultant, they switched from a preferred provider organization to a health maintenance organization that didn't have coinsurance charges for self-injectable drugs such as Avonex. Now, they pay nothing for the drug...."



".....many patients who rely on specialty drugs are coping with very serious, long-term medical conditions. "Consumerism" - encouraging patients to shop wisely for health care - doesn't really apply when such patients need drugs for which there are few or no alternatives, says Stone.
"With people as sick as the patients we're talking about, I don't think they're going to say, 'Is there a less expensive injectable drug I can take?' " she says. "It's a whole different dynamic."
Next week: Some states seek to require parity on oral cancer drug coverage.