Venting- Granny Chris and Jody

[Guest guest]

Hi and Jody-

I actually have a different take on this. I think they don't care whether

or not they permanently cure us because of the system we have. As a whole,

it's much less profitable to give someone RAI and put them on levothyroxine

for life, testing them only once/year (for doctors, labs and pharmaceutical

companies that is). Thyroid hormone is a relatively cheap drug (for

example, I could buy a 3 mo+ supply of levothyroxine for $15 if that's all I

was on). Name brand and generic ATDs are more expensive and life-long

testing every few months is usually required if someone does go into

remission. If they removed thyroids to make money, they'd at least go for

thyroidectomy which goes for $15K a pop (as opposed to $400-700 for RAI) and

everyone would be on name-brand levothyroxine (few are). Pharmaceutical

companies don't make a lot of money on whatever generics they produce.

I think it's more of an insurance issue. This makes the most sense to me

because RAI is the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to render someone

permanently hypothyroid. Then they put us on generic levothyroxine and only

test us once/year (a patient in remission requires more frequent life-long

testing). RAI and generic levothyroxine are the cheapest ways to go for the

insurance companies.

I had to fight tooth and nail to get on name-brand levothyroxine (which is

still relatively cheap). The insurance company didn't perceive a " need " for

it. That is, until studies came out showing that name-brands had less

clinically significant variance than generics. Thank Goodness for that much

at least!!!!

OK. Not arguing just had to gripe about insurance which costs an arm and a

leg and then the people that run it don't want to pay anything out. They OK

any procedures patients get and any drugs they get before the doctors or

pharmaceutical companies do anything to or get anything from patients.

I'd cancel insurance and pay out of pocket (we pay $670/mo for insurance)

because it'd be wayyyyy cheaper. But hubby wants us covered if anything

catastrophic happens or if I develop something chronic that does take a lot

of money.

I HATE insurance!!!!! It's a gamble and their aim isn't the same as ours.

Ours is to get the best care possible while theirs is to pay out as little

as possible while getting the highest premium possible. If that happens to

involve good care, that makes them happy but it's not a prerequisite.

Take care,

dx & RAI 1987 (at age 24)

> The more I delve into this the more I realize that the USA has

> no desire to make this disease any easier on us. It's too profitable

> keeping us in the dark..........