You are so right. One thing never really discussed in political discussions of health care reform is the affect socialized medicine (or whatever Hillary wants to call it) on the development of new treatments for MS and similar diseases. There are a lot of new things in the pipeline for MS, and a new associated gene was recently identified. All of that is money WELL spent, but it is expensive to do the research and drug development. When federal dollars start getting sucked into free wellness checkups for everyone, and for whatever national lifestyle/health programs that the politicians du jour dream up, what happens to discretionary spending on research? I guarantee that as federal budgets tighten, NIH research funding will diminish.
Also, although I’m not defending all actions by drug companies, if the government makes it unprofitable for them to do R&D for drugs that they can’t market to large groups of people, that R&D will dry up.
I hope your MS is quiescent and stays that way your entire life. I know how expensive MS drugs are, and I’m really happy to hear you have good group insurance. My personal belief is that people with diseases that they have no personal control over, like MS, deserve assistance with health care before those who through lifestyle choices contributed to their own conditions. I’m not being judgmental of them, but having MS and similar diseases is something that you have no control over, like losing your house to a tornado. I’m really sorry you’ve had to deal with this.
My MS is quite stable, I have some disability, but I’m mobile, and that’s a real blessing.
As to the meds, you’re right. They are expensive. I take an interferon and have for years. It’s not a cure, of course, but is supposed to lower exacerbations and extent of progression of the disease.
But there are new meds (Tysabri, for instance) where folks are giving really good reports about improvement they’re seeing on the med. While the interferons are expensive (about $1800 per month) Tysabri, is only a once a month infusion, but by the time you pay for the drug and the infusion center it can cost at least twice and sometimes three times what an interferon costs. But they are using it for people who have failed on the interferon or copaxone treatments, so it’s not that it’s a treatment of first choice.
Since MS is a disease that often affects young people, even with group insurance, there is a point at which folks would reach their maximum...if they were to get Tysabri infusions to keep their disease at bay. Of course, hopefully, they’ll be new drugs in the pipeline, maybe something cheaper (I can dream, LOL)...and people faced with maxing out their insurance by just getting treatments to keep their disease in check won’t be a reality.