gram: I have been reading all of your posts here recently. I just wanted to tell you that I understand about the cost of things. When I was working 5 1/2 years ago I had great health insurance through my employer, the insurance company basically paid for everything. I was very spoiled for quite a number of years. I had to pay very little for any services I received. Then I got let go from my job due to "workforce reduction" in 2009. I kept the good insurance through Cobra for 18 months. After that 18 months I had no insurance for the year of 2012. That was very tough on me, especially the prescription medication part. For 1/2 of 2012 I had no income whatsoever, my sister was paying all of my bills because I was broke. She couldn't afford to give me money for ALL of my prescriptions, so I had to only keep taking the medications that were the bare necessities. At the time I was taking many psychiatric medications for my mental health. Guess which drugs I couldn't afford to take ? The psychiatric ones. ( One year later I ended up in the hospital because of this). Anyhow, in 2013 I started collecting SSD, so I had regular Medicare. Stupid me screwed up and I did not apply for prescription medication coverage that year ( 2013 ). I had no idea what I was doing. So, for 2012 and 2013 I had to pay cash price for all of my prescriptions ! Ahhhhhh. In 2014 I signed up for AARP Medicare Complete insured through United Healthcare HMO. I had no idea how to chose a health insurance plan, so I picked the AARP one. I did not know about "donut holes" or "coverage gaps" until February 2014. ( Sigh ). Right now I can afford the co-pays for my PCP and my Specialists and my Physical Therapy and my custom made orthotics. BUT the only reason I can afford those things NOW is because I received back-dated settlement pay when I won my SSD case. The back-dated settlement is something I knew NOTHING about when I was sitting before an SSD judge with my attorney. I did not know about the back-dated settlement until my attorney and I left the courtroom. He told me about the back-dated settlement and also that I qualified for Medicare right away. I sobbed all the way home during my cab ride, I couldn't believe it. I had been broke, with no insurance and my sister was paying my way previous to this. I just wanted to say that the only way that I can afford these co-pays and things NOW is because I am supplementing my monthly SSD income with the back-dated settlement pay that is in my Savings Account. Without the Savings Account money I would not have all of the money for these co-pays. And once THAT money is gone, I just have my little bit of monthly SSD deposited into my checking account and no more. Once my savings is gone it is gone. PS: I take Lialda and the cash price for that each month comes to $432.00. I got this prescription for free in 2012 because I was broke and I applied to Shire Cares for the free medication. I recently applied again, but was denied because of my small co-pay at the beginning of the year. But now that my coverage gap has been met, my monthly cost for the Lialda has gone from $45.00 to $197.00 ( 47% of the total cash price ). I have a new Gastroenterologist, so if he decides to have me continue on this medication I will apply again with Shire Cares and quoting them the price of $197.00 per month. I will have to pay $197.00 per month for six months of every year with this donut hole thing. The first half of the year I will have to only pay the $45.00 per month. Thanks for listening. Sorry this is so long. This is my story.
