Letter to Editor: Elizabeth of Nashville, TN
Elizabeth of Nashville, TN writes:
My 32 year old daughter-in-law has a bone marrow failure disease. There is one and only one drug used to treat her condition. It is not a cure, however. What it does is binds to her red blood cells so that her body does not identify them as “abnormal”. This keeps her body from fully attacking itself. Without this drug, she would be dead within 5 to 10 years. She receives the drug every week by intravenous infusion. The cost to the drug alone, annually, is $400,000. When you include the cost the infusion center charges, her hematologist, her blood work, and an occasional transfusion, her health care expenses come to about $950,000 a year. But because she is able to receive this treatment, she is productive member of society. And she and my son are raising a wonderful toddler whom they adopted.
If the ACA is repealed without a replacement in place, she may well not be able to obtain her medications. Missing one does of her medication could well send her body into full rejection. Is this what you’d want for your family, Senators Corker and Alexander? Do the right thing for your constituents and all of America.
Help Elizabeth get this message heard by adding your voice.
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